IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v196y2022icp328-342.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Convective transport from geothermal borehole heat exchangers embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium

Author

Listed:
  • Ravi Shanker, Ganesh
  • Homan, K.O.

Abstract

Multi-dimensional natural convection and mixed convection have been studied numerically for the vertical borehole, a heated cylinder characterized by length Lb and diameter D, of a ground source heat pump in a fluid-saturated porous medium. The effect of natural convection over a range of ground properties characterized by Rayleigh number (RaL) is found to be significant and deviates strongly from boundary layer solutions for Rayleigh number less than 106, due to the flow turning required by the ground surface. For instance, the natural convection heat flux deviates from boundary layer prediction by over 20% for RaL = 104. Only at Rayleigh numbers of less than 2 × 103 can the heat transfer be treated as simple conduction, with the deviation less than approximately 5%, for fluid-saturated soil properties. The presence of groundwater flow, due to a hydraulic gradient, produces mixed convection leading to a convective heat transfer depending also upon Peclet number (PeD). A sufficient range of properties are examined such that the multi-dimensional mixed convection is shown to be captured between asymptotes to natural and forced convection. The dimensionless group (Lb/D)PeD/RaL is identified and shown to parameterize the variation between these two limits, with values less than 1.4 asymptoting to natural convection and values greater than 2.9 asymptoting to forced convection. Finally, a correlation encompassing all three regimes, natural, forced and mixed, is proposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ravi Shanker, Ganesh & Homan, K.O., 2022. "Convective transport from geothermal borehole heat exchangers embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 328-342.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:196:y:2022:i:c:p:328-342
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2022.06.089
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148122009296
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2022.06.089?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. Choi, Jung Chan & Park, Joonsang & Lee, Seung Rae, 2013. "Numerical evaluation of the effects of groundwater flow on borehole heat exchanger arrays," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 230-240.
    2. Zhou, Yang & Zheng, Zhi-xiang & Zhao, Guang-si, 2022. "Analytical models for heat transfer around a single ground heat exchanger in the presence of both horizontal and vertical groundwater flow considering a convective boundary condition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    3. Choi, Wonjun & Ooka, Ryozo, 2016. "Effect of natural convection on thermal response test conducted in saturated porous formation: Comparison of gravel-backfilled and cement-grouted borehole heat exchangers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA), pages 891-903.
    4. Spitler, Jeffrey D. & Javed, Saqib & Ramstad, Randi Kalskin, 2016. "Natural convection in groundwater-filled boreholes used as ground heat exchangers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 352-365.
    5. Javed, Saqib & Spitler, Jeffrey, 2017. "Accuracy of borehole thermal resistance calculation methods for grouted single U-tube ground heat exchangers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 790-806.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Choi, Wonjun & Kikumoto, Hideki & Choudhary, Ruchi & Ooka, Ryozo, 2018. "Bayesian inference for thermal response test parameter estimation and uncertainty assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 306-321.
    2. Javadi, Hossein & Mousavi Ajarostaghi, Seyed Soheil & Rosen, Marc A. & Pourfallah, Mohsen, 2019. "Performance of ground heat exchangers: A comprehensive review of recent advances," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 207-233.
    3. Zhao, Zilong & Lin, Yu-Feng & Stumpf, Andrew & Wang, Xinlei, 2022. "Assessing impacts of groundwater on geothermal heat exchangers: A review of methodology and modeling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 121-147.
    4. Ana Vieira & Maria Alberdi-Pagola & Paul Christodoulides & Saqib Javed & Fleur Loveridge & Frederic Nguyen & Francesco Cecinato & João Maranha & Georgios Florides & Iulia Prodan & Gust Van Lysebetten , 2017. "Characterisation of Ground Thermal and Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour for Shallow Geothermal Energy Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-51, December.
    5. Oleg Todorov & Kari Alanne & Markku Virtanen & Risto Kosonen, 2021. "Different Approaches for Evaluation and Modeling of the Effective Thermal Resistance of Groundwater-Filled Boreholes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-25, October.
    6. Sadeghi, Habibollah & Jalali, Ramin & Singh, Rao Martand, 2024. "A review of borehole thermal energy storage and its integration into district heating systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    7. Choi, Wonjun & Ooka, Ryozo, 2016. "Effect of natural convection on thermal response test conducted in saturated porous formation: Comparison of gravel-backfilled and cement-grouted borehole heat exchangers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA), pages 891-903.
    8. Johan Claesson & Saqib Javed, 2018. "Explicit Multipole Formulas for Calculating Thermal Resistance of Single U-Tube Ground Heat Exchangers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Tang, Fujiao & Nowamooz, Hossein, 2019. "Sensitive analysis on the effective soil thermal conductivity of the Thermal Response Test considering various testing times, field conditions and U-pipe lengths," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1732-1743.
    10. Ignacio Martín Nieto & Cristina Sáez Blázquez & Arturo Farfán Martín & Diego González-Aguilera, 2020. "Analysis of the Influence of Reducing the Duration of a Thermal Response Test in a Water-Filled Geothermal Borehole Located in Spain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-19, December.
    11. Johnsson, Josef & Adl-Zarrabi, Bijan, 2019. "Modelling and evaluation of groundwater filled boreholes subjected to natural convection," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Choi, Wonjun & Kikumoto, Hideki & Ooka, Ryozo, 2022. "Probabilistic uncertainty quantification of borehole thermal resistance in real-world scenarios," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PC).
    13. Brunetti, Giuseppe & Saito, Hirotaka & Saito, Takeshi & Šimůnek, Jiří, 2017. "A computationally efficient pseudo-3D model for the numerical analysis of borehole heat exchangers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 1113-1127.
    14. Zhang, Changxing & Wang, Xinjie & Sun, Pengkun & Kong, Xiangqiang & Sun, Shicai, 2020. "Effect of depth and fluid flow rate on estimate for borehole thermal resistance of single U-pipe borehole heat exchanger," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 2399-2408.
    15. Rivera, Jaime A. & Blum, Philipp & Bayer, Peter, 2015. "Ground energy balance for borehole heat exchangers: Vertical fluxes, groundwater and storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 1341-1351.
    16. Adel Eswiasi & Phalguni Mukhopadhyaya, 2021. "Performance of Conventional and Innovative Single U-Tube Pipe Configuration in Vertical Ground Heat Exchanger (VGHE)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, June.
    17. Li, Biao & Han, Zongwei & Bai, Chenguang & Hu, Honghao, 2019. "The influence of soil thermal properties on the operation performance on ground source heat pump system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 903-913.
    18. Somogyi, Viola & Sebestyén, Viktor & Nagy, Georgina, 2017. "Scientific achievements and regulation of shallow geothermal systems in six European countries – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P2), pages 934-952.
    19. Aizhao Zhou & Xianwen Huang & Wei Wang & Pengming Jiang & Xinwei Li, 2021. "Thermo-Hydraulic Performance of U-Tube Borehole Heat Exchanger with Different Cross-Sections," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.
    20. Gordon, David & Bolisetti, Tirupati & Ting, David S-K. & Reitsma, Stanley, 2018. "Experimental and analytical investigation on pipe sizes for a coaxial borehole heat exchanger," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 946-953.

    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:renene:v:196:y:2022:i:c:p:328-342. 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.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    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.