• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.583-587
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• 2009

This paper presents a series of numerical simulations on the thermal performance and sectional efficiency of a closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger (U-loop) equipped in a geothermal heat pump system (GHP). A 3-D finite volume analysis (Fluent) was used to simulate the operating process of the closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger by considering the effect of the thickness of HDPE pipe and grout thermal properties, distance between the inflow and outflow pipes, and the effectiveness of the latticed HDPE pipe system. It was observed that the thermal interference between the two strands of U-loop is of importance in determining the efficiency of the ground heat exchanger, and thus it is highly recommendable to modify the cross section configuration of the conventional U-loop system by including a thermally insulating latice between the two strands.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.534-542
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• 2012

Vertical closed-loop ground source heat pump systems(GSHP) have been installed widely in Korea since it can extract moderate temperature level of geothermal heat in a small area. As a ground heat exchanger, a vertical closed-loop type with brine circulation is mostly preferred since it is simple and less harmful to ground environment. However, it requires a secondary heat exchange loop between the refrigerant in a heat pump and the brine. By adding a geothermal heat exchanger in the secondary heat exchange loop, circulation pumps should be attached and the temperature difference between refrigerant and ground is increased, which are important parts of performance degradation. In this paper, annual and seasonal performances of direct expansion(DX) geothermal heat pump were estimated mathematically as an alternative of classical indirect geothermal heat pump based on the annual performance evaluation. As a result, DX geothermal heat pump showed 43% higher annual performance than the classical U-tube geothermal heat pump.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.114-122
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• 2012

Vertical closed-loop ground source heat pump systems(GSHP) have been installed widely in Korea since it can extract moderate temperature level of geothermal heat in a small area. As a ground heat exchanger, a vertical closed -loop type with brine circulation is mostly preferred since it is simple and less harmful to ground environment. However, it requires a secondary heat exchange loop between the refrigerant in a heat pump and the brine. By adding a geothermal heat exchanger in the secondary heat exchange loop, circulation pumps should be attached and the temperature difference between refrigerant and ground is increased, which are important parts of performance degradation. In this paper, annual and seasonal performances of direct expansion(DX) geothermal heat pump were estimated mathematically as an alternative of classical indirect geothermal heat pump based on the annual performance evaluation. As results, DX geothermal heat pump showed 43% higher annual performance than the classical U-tube geothermal heat pump.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.579-585
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• 2009

Recently, Vertical-Closed Loop system using geothermal which is the most efficient among the building cooling and heating systems is coming into wide spread due to assistance of domestic policies. However, there is a limitation that a design of ground heat exchanger taking 60% of construction cost is done by GLD and GLHEPRO programs without specific guidelines and consideration on Entering Water Temperature(EWT). For getting an optimal EWT, we analyzed the costs for construction of ground heat exchanger and cooling and heating for 15 years. In the results, reduction of construction costs as the length of ground heat exchanger shortens was much greater than increase of the electrical power consumption as COP gets low. EWT that COP of heat pump can be 3.76 or above was below $31^{\circ}C$ in cooling and was over $5^{\circ}C$ in heating.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.229-239
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• 2010

Performing a series of in-situ thermal response tests, the effective thermal conductivity of six vertical closed-loop ground heat exchangers was experimentally evaluated and compared each other, which were constructed in a test bed in Wonju. To compare thermal efficiency of the ground heat exchangers in field, the six boreholes were constructed with different construction conditions: grouting materials (cement vs. bentonite), different additives (silica sand vs. graphite) and the shape of pipe-sections (general U-loop type vs. 3 pipe-type). From the test results, it can be concluded that cement grouting has a higher effective thermal conductivity than that of bentonite grouting, and the efficiency of graphite better performs over silica sand as a thermally-enhancing addictive. In addition, a new 3 pipe-type heat exchanger provides less thermal interference between the inlet and outlet pipe than the conventional U-loop type heat exchanger, which results in superior thermal performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.9-15
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• 2017

When applying geothermal systems in cities such as seoul where high density development prevails, the selection of geothermal system capable of obtaining a large capacity in the limited grounds is necessary. In this study, an easy-to-use design tool is developed in the form of spreadsheet by applying the calculation theory of existing closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger that can be used in the early design stage of the open-loop ground heat exchanger. By only using the maximum cooling and heating load, it is possible to calculate optimal design open-loop ground heat exchanger. Further research is needed, we are plan to improve the program considering the heat loss of groundwater flowing in the inner casing, G-Function for Open-Loop, and verification by applying actual projects.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.1638-1646
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• 2008

This paper presents a series of numerical simulations on the thermal performance and sectional efficiency of a closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger (U-loop) equipped in a geothermal heat pump system (GHP). A 2-D finite element analysis, ANSYS, was employed to evaluate the temperature distribution on the borehole cross section involving HDPE pipe/grout/soil formation to compare the sectional efficiency between the conventional U-loop and a new latticed HDPE pipe system which is equipped with a thermally insulating latice in order to reduce thermal interference between the inflow and outflow pipes. In addition, a 3-D finite volume analysis (Fluent) was used to simulate the operating process of the closed-loop vertical ground heat exchanger by considering the effect of grout's thermal properties, rate of circulation pump, distance between the inflow and outflow pipes, and the effectiveness of the latticed HDPE pipe system. It was observed that the thermal interference between the two strands of U-loop is of importance in determining the efficiency of the ground heat exchanger, and thus it is highly recommendable to modify the cross section configuration of the conventional U-loop system by including a thermally insulating latice between the two strands.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.423-428
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• 2007

This study was performed to construct a geothermal data base about thermal conductivity of ground heat exchanger and thermal properties of grouting material which used to refill the borehole. We have acquired geothermal data sets from 39 sites over wide area of South Korea except to Jeju island. From data analysis, the range of thermal conductivity is 1.5$\sim$4.0 W/mK. It means that thermal conductivity varies with grouting material as well as regional geology and ground water system.

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

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