IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v296y2021ics030626192100492x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Numerical modelling of a building integrated earth-to-air heat exchanger

Author

Listed:
  • Taurines, Kevin
  • Giroux-Julien, Stéphanie
  • Farid, Mohammed
  • Ménézo, Christophe

Abstract

This paper investigates an innovative earth-to-air heat exchanger (EAHE), namely the geothermal foundation Fondatherm®. This system solves numerous technical problems inherent to a traditional EAHE. However, an accurate understanding of its thermal behavior is crucial to ensure the best energy gain and its economic viability. This current paper focuses on a numerical study of the ventilated foundation. A time-dependent three-dimensional finite volume numerical model is developed. This model considers coupled heat and moisture transfers as well as complex boundary conditions such as the weather, the building and the water table simultaneous influences. A matric-head based system of equations is used to represent the heat, vapor and liquid transfers within the soil. It is combined to a capillary pressure-based formulation of the heat and vapor balance equation for the concrete foundation. Furthermore, a numerical method built on a switching from a potential- to a flux-based system of equations is proposed. It is added to a variable time-step method of resolution and allow to handle the greatest hygric loads variations at the ground surface. The numerical code is successfully validated against analytical solutions for simple cases, and against experimental and in situ measurements.

Suggested Citation

  • Taurines, Kevin & Giroux-Julien, Stéphanie & Farid, Mohammed & Ménézo, Christophe, 2021. "Numerical modelling of a building integrated earth-to-air heat exchanger," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:296:y:2021:i:c:s030626192100492x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192100492X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117030?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gan, Guohui, 2017. "Dynamic thermal simulation of horizontal ground heat exchangers for renewable heating and ventilation of buildings," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 361-371.
    2. Florides, Georgios & Kalogirou, Soteris, 2007. "Ground heat exchangers—A review of systems, models and applications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(15), pages 2461-2478.
    3. Niu, Fuxin & Yu, Yuebin & Yu, Daihong & Li, Haorong, 2015. "Heat and mass transfer performance analysis and cooling capacity prediction of earth to air heat exchanger," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 211-221.
    4. Mihalakakou, G. & Santamouris, M. & Asimakopoulos, D. & Papanikolaou, N., 1994. "Impact of ground cover on the efficiencies of earth-to-air heat exchangers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 19-32.
    5. Sterpi, D. & Tomaselli, G. & Angelotti, A., 2020. "Energy performance of ground heat exchangers embedded in diaphragm walls: Field observations and optimization by numerical modelling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P2), pages 2748-2760.
    6. Bansal, Vikas & Misra, Rohit & Agarwal, Ghanshyam Das & Mathur, Jyotirmay, 2013. "Transient effect of soil thermal conductivity and duration of operation on performance of Earth Air Tunnel Heat Exchanger," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 1-11.
    7. Mihalakakou, G. & Lewis, J.O. & Santamouris, M., 1996. "The influence of different ground covers on the heating potential of earth-to-air heat exchangers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 33-46.
    8. Mihalakakou, G. & Santamouris, M. & Asimakopoulos, D., 1994. "Use of the ground for heat dissipation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 17-25.
    9. Badescu, Viorel, 2007. "Simple and accurate model for the ground heat exchanger of a passive house," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 845-855.
    10. Paolo Maria Congedo & Caterina Lorusso & Maria Grazia De Giorgi & Domenico Laforgia, 2014. "Computational Fluid Dynamic Modeling of Horizontal Air-Ground Heat Exchangers (HAGHE) for HVAC Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Peretti, Clara & Zarrella, Angelo & De Carli, Michele & Zecchin, Roberto, 2013. "The design and environmental evaluation of earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHE). A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 107-116.
    12. Bansal, Vikas & Misra, Rohit & Agarwal, Ghanshyam Das & Mathur, Jyotirmay, 2013. "‘Derating Factor’ new concept for evaluating thermal performance of earth air tunnel heat exchanger: A transient CFD analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 418-426.
    13. Gan, Guohui, 2015. "Simulation of dynamic interactions of the earth–air heat exchanger with soil and atmosphere for preheating of ventilation air," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 118-132.
    14. Ascione, Fabrizio & Bellia, Laura & Minichiello, Francesco, 2011. "Earth-to-air heat exchangers for Italian climates," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 2177-2188.
    15. Paolo Maria Congedo & Caterina Lorusso & Maria Grazia De Giorgi & Riccardo Marti & Delia D’Agostino, 2016. "Horizontal Air-Ground Heat Exchanger Performance and Humidity Simulation by Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-14, November.
    16. Tittelein, Pierre & Achard, Gilbert & Wurtz, Etienne, 2009. "Modelling earth-to-air heat exchanger behaviour with the convolutive response factors method," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(9), pages 1683-1691, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yue, Yingjun & Yan, Zengfeng & Ni, Pingan & Lei, Fuming & Yao, Shanshan, 2024. "Machine learning-based multi-performance prediction and analysis of Earth-Air Heat Exchanger," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mihalakakou, Giouli & Souliotis, Manolis & Papadaki, Maria & Halkos, George & Paravantis, John & Makridis, Sofoklis & Papaefthimiou, Spiros, 2022. "Applications of earth-to-air heat exchangers: A holistic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    2. Bordoloi, Namrata & Sharma, Aashish & Nautiyal, Himanshu & Goel, Varun, 2018. "An intense review on the latest advancements of Earth Air Heat Exchangers," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 261-280.
    3. Singh, Ramkishore & Sawhney, R.L. & Lazarus, I.J. & Kishore, V.V.N., 2018. "Recent advancements in earth air tunnel heat exchanger (EATHE) system for indoor thermal comfort application: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2162-2185.
    4. Rachana Vidhi, 2018. "A Review of Underground Soil and Night Sky as Passive Heat Sink: Design Configurations and Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, October.
    5. Soni, Suresh Kumar & Pandey, Mukesh & Bartaria, Vishvendra Nath, 2015. "Ground coupled heat exchangers: A review and applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 83-92.
    6. H.Ali, Mohammed & Kurjak, Zoltan & Beke, Janos, 2023. "Investigation of earth air heat exchangers functioning in arid locations using Matlab/Simulink," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 632-643.
    7. Paolo Maria Congedo & Caterina Lorusso & Maria Grazia De Giorgi & Riccardo Marti & Delia D’Agostino, 2016. "Horizontal Air-Ground Heat Exchanger Performance and Humidity Simulation by Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-14, November.
    8. Peretti, Clara & Zarrella, Angelo & De Carli, Michele & Zecchin, Roberto, 2013. "The design and environmental evaluation of earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHE). A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 107-116.
    9. Rodrigues, Michel Kepes & Vaz, Joaquim & Oliveira Rocha, Luiz Alberto & Domingues dos Santos, Elizaldo & Isoldi, Liércio André, 2022. "A full approach to Earth-Air Heat Exchanger employing computational modeling, performance analysis and geometric evaluation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 535-556.
    10. Akhtari, Mohammad Reza & Shayegh, Iman & Karimi, Nader, 2020. "Techno-economic assessment and optimization of a hybrid renewable earth - air heat exchanger coupled with electric boiler, hydrogen, wind and PV configurations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 839-851.
    11. Benhammou, Mohammed & Draoui, Belkacem, 2015. "Parametric study on thermal performance of earth-to-air heat exchanger used for cooling of buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 348-355.
    12. Wei, Haibin & Yang, Dong & Wang, Jilibo & Du, Jinhui, 2020. "Field experiments on the cooling capability of earth-to-air heat exchangers in hot and humid climate," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    13. Adriana Greco & Claudia Masselli, 2020. "The Optimization of the Thermal Performances of an Earth to Air Heat Exchanger for an Air Conditioning System: A Numerical Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-25, December.
    14. Gomat, Landry Jean Pierre & Elombo Motoula, Smaël Magloire & M’Passi-Mabiala, Bernard, 2020. "An analytical method to evaluate the impact of vertical part of an earth-air heat exchanger on the whole system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1005-1016.
    15. Amanowicz, Łukasz & Wojtkowiak, Janusz, 2020. "Approximated flow characteristics of multi-pipe earth-to-air heat exchangers for thermal analysis under variable airflow conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 585-597.
    16. Agrawal, Kamal Kumar & Misra, Rohit & Yadav, Tejpal & Agrawal, Ghanshyam Das & Jamuwa, Doraj Kamal, 2018. "Experimental study to investigate the effect of water impregnation on thermal performance of earth air tunnel heat exchanger for summer cooling in hot and arid climate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 255-265.
    17. Kappler, Genyr & Dias, João Batista & Haeberle, Fernanda & Wander, Paulo Roberto & Moraes, Carlos Alberto Mendes & Modolo, Regina Célia Espinosa, 2019. "Study of an earth-to-water heat exchange system which relies on underground water tanks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1236-1246.
    18. Diana D’Agostino & Francesco Esposito & Adriana Greco & Claudia Masselli & Francesco Minichiello, 2020. "Parametric Analysis on an Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger Employed in an Air Conditioning System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-24, June.
    19. Gao, Jiajia & Li, Anbang & Xu, Xinhua & Gang, Wenjie & Yan, Tian, 2018. "Ground heat exchangers: Applications, technology integration and potentials for zero energy buildings," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(PA), pages 337-349.
    20. Aldona Skotnicka-Siepsiak, 2020. "Operation of a Tube GAHE in Northeastern Poland in Spring and Summer—A Comparison of Real-World Data with Mathematically Modeled Data," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:296:y:2021:i:c:s030626192100492x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.