• Land and Housing Review
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.25-32
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• 2018

Application of geothermal energy in buildings has been gaining popularity as it provides the benefits of both heating and cooling a building. Among the various types of geothermal energy systems, ground-coupled heat pump system is the most commonly applied one in South Korea. A ground heat exchanger plays an important role as a heat source in winter and a heat sink in summer. For the stable operation of a ground-coupled heat pump system, a ground heat exchanger should be sized so that it provides sufficient heating and cooling energy. Heating and cooling energies generated in ground heat exchangers mainly depend on the temperature difference between the heating medium in ground heat exchangers and the surrounding ground. In addition, the performance of ground heat exchangers influences the change in ground temperature. Therefore, it is necessary to consider this interrelation between the change in the ground temperature and the performance of ground heat exchanger for an accurate estimation of its performance. However, previous thermal analysis models for ground heat exchangers are not competent enough to allow a complete understanding of this interrelation. Therefore, this study proposes a three-dimensional equivalent, transient ground heat exchanger analysis model. First, a previous thermal analysis model for ground heat exchangers, including an analytical model, a g-function, and a numerical model are analyzed. Next, to overcome the limitations of the previous models, a three-dimensional equivalent, transient ground heat exchanger model is proposed. Finally, this study validated the proposed model with the measurement data of the thermal response test, sandbox test, and TRNSYS DST model. All validation results showed a good agreement. These findings helped us to investigate the thermal performance of ground heat exchangers more accurately than the analytical models, and faster than the numerical models. Furthermore, the proposed model contributes to the design of ground heat exchangers by considering the different operation conditions of buildings.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.29-35
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• 2012

Geothermal heat pump system has been spotlighted as an efficient building energy system, because it has great potentials for reducing energy in building air conditioning and reducing $CO_2$ emissions. However, higher initial cost is a barrier to the promotion of its use. Energy-pile and energy-slab are known as low cost ground heat exchangers comparing with conventional ground heat exchangers, because they utilize building structures as ground heat exchangers. This paper presents the daily cooling performance of a geothermal heat pump system with energy-pile and energy-slab. The energy-piles and the energy-slabs are connected to heat pump units in parallel. The cooling capacity of the system was nearly constant due to the stability of the ground heat exchangers. The stability of the energy-pile was a little higher than that of the energy-stab as a heat sink.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.684-687
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• 2005

Ground source heat pump systems are used for heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems in commercial buildings, schools, and factories because of low operating and maintenance costs. These systems use the earth as a heat source in heating mode and a heat sink in cooling mode. Ground heat exchangers are classified by a horizontal type and vertical type according to the installation method. A horizontal type means that a heat exchanger is laid in the trench bored in 1.2 to 1.8 m depth. The solar heat and the rainwater are affected by the performance of heat exchanger and causes mutual influence among heat exchangers. In this study, to evaluate the performance of straight type, slinky type, and spiral type of horizontal ground heat exchangers designed on 1 RT scale, test sections are buried on the earth and experimental apparatus is installed. Therefore the performance of these is estimated.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.31 no.B
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• pp.27-36
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• 2011

In this paper, the applicability of cement grout has been studied as an alternative to bentonite grout for backfill ground heat exchangers. To provide an optimal mixture design, the thermal conductivity of cement grout and bentonite grout with various mixture ratios were experimentally evaluated and compared. Numerical analyses using Fluent(FVM program) were applied to compare the thermal transfer efficiency of the cement grout with that of the bentonite grout used in the construction. Also the effective ground thermal conductivity was measured by In-situ thermal response test. The results showed that the thermal efficiency of the cement grout was better than the bentonite grout. Consequently, the cement grout could be an alternative with more thermal efficiency to bentonite grout for ground heat exchangers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.10-16
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• 2011

Performance of ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs) is mainly affected by ground heat exchangers which makes up more than 40% of construction cost. Exact construction and grout as backfill are important, because it is difficult to repair after being installed. As grout materials, bentonite grout material and cement material are used In this paper, thermal conductivity according to mix proportion of cement grout has been experimentally studied. Some variables were set to evaluate thermal conductivities according to change in cement content, unit water ratio, mass per volume of fresh mortar, and aggregate types. From the experimental analysis, high performance cement grout has been proposed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.213-220
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• 2010

This study presents a numerical simulation model of vertical ground heat exchangers, considering unsaturated hydro static ground conditions induced by the ground water table fluctuation. Heat transfer in ground and grout is modeled by a 3-D FEM transient conductive heat transfer model, where heat transfer between circulating fluid and heat exchanging pipe is treated as 1-D quasi steady state forced convective elements. To take into account the unsaturated ground condition, soil thermal conductivity and heat capacity which are dependent on the matric suction are applied to ground elements. Parametric studies considering various ground water table conditions are conducted to investigate the influence of unsaturated hydro static ground condition on the mean heat exchange rate of ground heat exchanger. Simulation results considering water table fluctuation show 60~100% of mean heat exchange rate for a saturated soil condition and 125~208% of that for a dry soil condition. Thus consideration of unsaturated soil condition is substantially recommended for more accurate design and performance evaluation for ground heat exchangers.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.6-13
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• 2014

This paper presents a computational study of thermal performance and construction cost of horizontal ground heat exchangers (GHEs). GLD (ground loop design) simulations of various type of GHEs were carried out. Construction costs were also calculated based on standard estimating, and compared with vertical type GHE system. Besides that, dummy regression analysis was conducted to study the influence of design parameters on the simulation results in horizontal ground heat exchanger system.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.32-38
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• 2020

This study summarizes test methods and evaluation methods for examining the thermal characteristics of Jeju-type ground heat exchangers (GHXs) installed on Jeju Island, and analyzes the ground temperature and thermal characteristics of ground heat exchangers installed in various regions by using thermal response tests (TRT). Jeju Island is composed of volcanic rock layers, and the groundwater flow is well developed. A Jeju-type GHX can be installed up to 30 m from groundwater level after drilling a borehole. The ground heat exchanger has a structure in which several pipes are inserted into the borehole. In order to examine the characteristics of the Jeju-type GHX, tests were conducted on ground heat exchangers installed in four places on Jeju Island (Pyoseon, Jeju, Namwon, and Hallym). As a result of the analysis of the Jeju-type ground heat exchanger, the ground circulating water temperature stabilized according to the heat injection, depending on the installed location, and was formed within one to three hours. The ground heat exchanger capacity in Hallym was highest at 73.4 kW (cooling) and 82.8 kW (heating), and the Jeju-type calculation was lowest at 34.1 kW (cooling) and 23.3 kW (heating).

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.1 no.4 s.4
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• pp.30-37
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• 2005

Cycle simulation of Ground Source Heat Pump[GSHP] system was carried out to determine the design specification of basic components such as turbo compressor and heat exchangers. Part load operation characteristics of the designed GSHP system was estimated using the compressor and heat exchanger performance data. A 50RT class turbo compressor for GSHP system is now under development, in which R134a refrigerant is adopted as working fluid. The compressor with variable cascade diffusers is designed to work both in cooling and heating modes so that it can actively keep up with the climate change with high efficiency. The normal running speeds of the compressor are 59000rpm for heating mode and 70000rpm for tooling mode respectively. It has two identical impellers at both ends of the rotor so as to minimize aero-induced thrust force effectively. GSHP system was coupled with a vortical type heat exchanger, and heat gain and heat loss from ground were evaluated per a bore hole. For the optimal integration of the heat pump system, its header for circulating fluid was combined with the ground heat exchangers in parallel and series configuration.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2102-2107
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• 2007

GSHP systems are used for air-conditioning systems in commercial buildings, schools, and factories because of low operating and maintenance costs. These systems use the earth as a heat source in heating and a heat sink in cooling mode. Ground heat exchangers are classified by a horizontal and vertical type according to the installation method. Vertical type is usually constructed by placing small diameter high density polyethylene tube in a vertical borehole. Vertical tube sizes range from 20 to 40 mm nominal diameter. Borehole depth range between 100 and 200 m depending on local drilling conditions and available equipment. In this study, to evaluate the performance of single u-tube with bentonite grouting, single u-tube with broken stone grouting and double u-tube bentonite grouting of vertical ground heat exchangers, test sections are buried on the earth and experimental apparatus is installed. Therefore the heat transfer performance and pressure loss of these are estimated.