• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.14 no.7
• /
• pp.3164-3169
• /
• 2013

In this study, a series of CFD analysis was performed in order to predict the leaving water temperature and the slope of in-situ thermal response tests of the vertical-type geothermal heat exchangers. The geothermal heat exchanger and surrounding ground formation were modeled using GAMBIT and simulation was used by utilizing FLUENT which is commercial CFD code. Comparing with the results of CFD and in-situ thermal response tests, the results of CFD was presented good agreement with $0.5^{\circ}C$ difference of Leaving Water Temperature and with 1.6% difference of the Slope.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.550-554
• /
• 2007

A one-dimensional heat transfer model coupled with parameter estimation is developed in this study to predict the effective thermal conductivities of soil formation and borehole resistances from in situ field test data. In this application a new method of using initial ignoring time(IIT) obtained from error estimation is tried and turned out to be successful in determining soil thermal conductivities. The validity of this model is accomplished through comparison of the predicted temperature profiles of the model with the data from laboratory scale experimental setting. Eleven test boreholes were constructed in Ochang, Chungcheong Buk Do, and thermal response test was carried out with each borehole. The results of the in situ tests were analyzed with our 1-D numerical model and compared with the results of line source method. The comparison shows that the thermal properties from line source method is a little lower (${\sim}95%$)than those from numerical method. The reason of such result seems to be the lower thermal conductivity of grout material, which is not counted in line source method.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.32 no.7
• /
• pp.5-14
• /
• 2016

The use of geothermal energy has increased for economically and environmentally friendly utilization, and a geothermal heat pump (GSHP) system for space heating and cooling is being used widely. As ground thermal properties such as ground thermal conductivity and ground thermal diffusivity are substantial parameters in the design of geothermal heat pump system, ground thermal conductivity should be obtained from in-situ thermal response test (TRT). This paper presents an experimental study of ground thermal properties of U and 2U type ground heat exchangers (GHEs) measured by TRTs. The U and 2U type GHEs were installed in a partially saturated dredged soil deposit, and TRTs were conducted for 48 hours. A method to derive the thermal diffusivity as well as thermal conductivity was proposed from a non-linear regression analysis. In addition, remolded soil samples from different layers were collected from the field, and soil specimens were reconstructed according to the field ground condition. Then equivalent ground thermal conductivity and ground thermal diffusivity were calculated from the lab test results and they were compared with the in-situ TRT results.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.11a
• /
• pp.122.1-122.1
• /
• 2010

수평형 지중열교환기의 지중온도 및 지중열전도도를 분석하기 위해서 경기테크노파크 화단에 수평형 지중열교환기를 설치하였다. 수평형 지중열교환기는 수평 길이 50m, 폭 2.7m, 깊이 2m에 파이프 규격 30mm, 파이프 길이 400m 1본을 매설하였다. 2009년 7월부터 2010년 5월까지 총 7회에 걸쳐 현장열응답방식을 이용하여 지중열전도도를 측정하였다. 측정결과를 분석해보면 수평형 지중열교환기의 지중온도는 계절적인 영향을 많이 받았으며, 지중열전도도는 계절적인 요인과는 무관하게 $1.51{\pm}0.1W/mk$ 범위에서 잘 일치함을 보였다. 이러한 결과로서 수평형 지중열교환기의 현장열응답시험은 현장설치 조건을 모두 반영한 결과를 도출할 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.05a
• /
• pp.195.2-195.2
• /
• 2011

The borehole heat exchanger of Geothermal Heat Pump (GHP) system should be sustainable and cost effective for long term operation. To guaranty the performance of the system thermal Response Tests (TRTs) with simple recommended procedures have been applied in many countries. Korea government developed a standard TRT procedure in order to control the quality on GHP projects. In the TRT procedure interpretation method has a rule that data set has to be interpreted by the line source model(LSM). The LSM employes some assumptions that surrounding medium is homogeneous and the line source is infinite and constant heat flux, however real ground condition is unisotropic and heterogeneous, and showing regional or local ground water flows in many cases. We need to develope improved evaluation models to estimate accurate ground thermal conductivity with respect to geological and influence of ground water because current TRT standard test procedure has limitations to be applied for every locations and system. This study surveyed the uncertainty of the thermal parameters from the interpretation method considering different evaluation period. The interpretation of 208 TRT data sets represents limitations of LSM application that some obtained ground thermal conductivities are statistically unstable and convergence time of ground thermal conductivity over test period shows trends responding the length of test period. This evaluation study will be helpful to provide some effective procedure for the thermal parameter estimation and to complement current TRT standard procedure.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.776-781
• /
• 2008

A ground heat exchanger in a GSHP system is an important unit that determines the thermal performance of a system and its initial cost. The Size and performance of this heat exchanger is highly dependent on the thermal properties. A proper design requires certain site-specific parameters, most importantly the ground effective thermal conductivity, the borehole thermal resistance and the undisturbed ground temperature. This paper is part of a research project aiming at constructing a database of these site-specific properties, especially ground effective thermal conductivity. The objective was to develop and evaluation method, and to provide this knowledge to design engineers. To achieve these goals, thermal response tests were conducted using a testing device at nearly 150 locations in Korea. The in-situ thermal response is the temperature development over time when a known heating load imposed, e.g. by circulating a heat carrier fluid through the test exchangers. The line-source model was then applied to the response test data because of its simplicity. From the data analysis, the range of ground effective thermal conductivity at various sites is $1.5{\sim}4.0\;W$/mK. The results also show that the ground effective thermal conductivity varies with grouting materials as well as regional geological conditions and groundwater flow.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.361-375
• /
• 2015

An energy pile is one of the novel ground heat exchangers (GHEX's) that is a economical alternative to the conventional closed-loop vertical GHEX. The combined system of both a structural foundation and a GHEX contains a heat exchange pipe inside the pile foundation and allows a working fluid circulating through the pipe, inducing heat exchange with the ground formation. In this paper, a group of energy piles equipped with parallel U-type (5, 8 and 10 pairs) heat exchange pipes was constructed in a test-bed by fabricating in large-diameter cast-in-place concrete piles. In addition, a closed-loop vertical GHEX with 30m depth was constructed nearby to conduct in-situ thermal response tests (TRTs) and to compare with the thermal performance of the cast-in-place energy piles. A series of thermal performance tests was carried out with application of an artificial cooling and heating load to evaluate the heat exchange rate of energy piles. The applicability of cast-in-place energy piles was evaluated by comparing the relative heat exchange efficiency and heat exchange rate with preceding studies. Finally, it is concluded that the cast-in-place energy piles constructed in the test-bed demonstrate effective and stable thermal performance compared with the other types of GHEX.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2010.09a
• /
• pp.800-807
• /
• 2010

In this study, a series of numerical analyses has been performed in order to evaluate the performance of a full-scale closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger constructed in Wonju. The circulation pipe HDPE, borehole and surrounding ground were modeled using FLUENT, a finite-volume method (FVM) program, for analyzing the heat transfer process of the system. Two user-defined functions (UDFs) accounting for the difference in the temperatures of the circulating inflow and outflow water and the change of the surrounding ground temperature with depth were adopted in the FLUENT model. The thermal properties of materials estimated in laboratory were used in the numerical analyses to compare the thermal efficiency of the cement grout with that of the bentonite grout used in the construction. The results of the simulation provide a verification of the in situ thermal response test data. The numerical model with the ground thermal conductivity of 4W/mK yielded the simulation result closer to the in-situ thermal response test than with the ground thermal conductivity of 3W/mK. From the results of the numerical analyses, the effective thermal conductivities of the cement and bentonite grouts were obtained to be 3.32W/mK and 2.99 W/mK, respectively.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.168.2-168.2
• /
• 2010

The growing market for geothermal heat pump system requires great consideration of quality control and assurance in design and construction. The borehole heat exchanger of GHP system should be sustainable, economical and ecological. Thermal Response Test (TRT) is a useful method for site investigation to obtain reliable data for a optimal system design from the technical and economical aspect. Intensive researches combined with exchange of experiences on an international level within the IEA ECES Annex 21 improved the technology. Major subjects on the interpretation of TRT are development of improved evaluation models, evaluation of the TRT with respect to geological layers and investigation of the influence of ground water. Current status of TRT in South Korea, as well as a new version of the Korean TRT standard test procedure was presented. TRT is mostly used for governmental supported projects with corresponds to more than 100 GCHP systems per year. More than 200 tests are applied, mostly on single U-tube heat exchangers (about 95%). Bentonite is the most common grouting to be used. KIGAM (Korea Institute of Geoscience & Mineral Resources) is also keeping a GIS geological and geothermal database. In the institute also laboratory measurements of rock properties are carried out. About 90% of the laboratory measurements of the rock heat conductivity shows higher values than the in-situ TRT.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.306-314
• /
• 2012

Several numerical or analytical models have been proposed to analyze the thermal response of vertical ground heat exchangers (GHEX). However, most models are valid only after several hours of operation since they neglect the heat capacity of the borehole. Recently, the short time response of the GHEX became important in system simulation to improve efficiency. In this paper, a simple new method to evaluate the short time response of the GHEX by using an analogy model of electric circuit transient analysis was presented. The new transient heat exchanger model adopting the concept of thermal capacitance of the borehole as well as the steady-state thermal resistance showed the transient thermal resistance of the borehole. The model was validated by in-situ thermal response test and then compared with the DST model of the TRNSYS program.