Simulating the thermal performance of borehole heat exchangers under groundwater flow
Simulating the thermal performance of borehole heat exchangers under groundwater flow
Understanding the thermal performance of Borehole Heat Exchangers (BHEs) is crucial for the analysis and design of a ground source heat pump system. In this paper, a novel numerical methodology is proposed to evaluate the thermal performance of a BHE at the meso-scale while considering groundwater flow. Based on computerized tomography imaging of soil samples, the meso-structures of the soil under study are characterized and realistically reconstructed in a finite-element model. Characteristics, such as soil grain ellipticity, soil grain roughness, porosity and grading information, are captured and incorporated in the finite-element calculation. A Monte-Carlo-based numerical simulation is then carried out to evaluate the thermal performance in a probabilistic context. Laboratory experiments are then conducted to measure the thermal release coefficient of the soil samples. Based on the results, a rigorous validation study is performed, which shows that the proposed numerical methodology realistically reconstructs the meso-structures and evaluates the thermal performance under groundwater flow. The methodology provides a viable tool for understanding the thermal performance of a BHE.
Ze Zhou Wang; Xian Wen Huang; Kai Qi Li
10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (NUMGE2023)
13. Geo-energy & energy geotechnics
https://doi.org/10.53243/NUMGE2023-207
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