IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i11p2925-d368329.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Parametric Analysis on an Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger Employed in an Air Conditioning System

Author

Listed:
  • Diana D’Agostino

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy)

  • Francesco Esposito

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy)

  • Adriana Greco

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy)

  • Claudia Masselli

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy)

  • Francesco Minichiello

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy)

Abstract

This paper is focused on the resort to geothermal energy, through the employment of an Earth-to-Air-Heat Exchanger (EAHX) positioned upstream of the air-handling unit of an air conditioning system, for an office building in Naples (South Italy). The aim is to evaluate the energy performances of this unusual system compared to the common solution of external air directly entering the air-handling unit. The EAHX is extensively designed and two-dimensionally modeled, and the analysis is solved with finite element method. The model is validated with experimental data and this comparison shows good agreement. With the requirement of providing the building with 1300 m 3 h −1 of external airflow, different design solutions for the EAHX are studied, by varying the diameter (in the range 0.2–0.5 m) and length (between 20 and 140 m) of the buried pipes. The results indicate that: smaller tube diameters enhance the heat transfer; a tube length between 80 and 100 m is recommended. Using the EAHX, the reduction of the thermal power of the coils in the air-handling unit is greater than 40% in most cases. Finally, the efficiency of the EAHX is assessed as a function of the tube length and diameter, reaching values up to 0.9.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:11:p:2925-:d:368329
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/11/2925/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/11/2925/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosiek, Sabina & Batlles, Francisco Javier, 2013. "Renewable energy solutions for building cooling, heating and power system installed in an institutional building: Case study in southern Spain," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 147-168.
    2. Ida Franzén & Linnéa Nedar & Maria Andersson, 2019. "Environmental Comparison of Energy Solutions for Heating and Cooling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Lin, Jian & Nowamooz, Hossein & Braymand, Sandrine & Wolff, Patrice & Fond, Christophe, 2020. "Impact of soil moisture on the long-term energy performance of an earth-air heat exchanger system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P2), pages 2676-2687.
    4. Elisa Moretti & Emanuele Bonamente & Cinzia Buratti & Franco Cotana, 2013. "Development of Innovative Heating and Cooling Systems Using Renewable Energy Sources for Non-Residential Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-16, October.
    5. Daniel Ştefan Armeanu & Ştefan Cristian Gherghina & George Pasmangiu, 2019. "Exploring the Causal Nexus between Energy Consumption, Environmental Pollution and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-27, September.
    6. Spitler, Jeffrey D. & Gehlin, Signhild E.A., 2015. "Thermal response testing for ground source heat pump systems—An historical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1125-1137.
    7. Li, Hui & Ni, Long & Yao, Yang & Sun, Cheng, 2020. "Annual performance experiments of an earth-air heat exchanger fresh air-handling unit in severe cold regions: Operation, economic and greenhouse gas emission analyses," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 25-37.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. António Trota & Pedro Ferreira & Luis Gomes & João Cabral & Peter Kallberg, 2019. "Power Production Estimates from Geothermal Resources by Means of Small-Size Compact Climeon Heat Power Converters: Case Studies from Portugal (Sete Cidades, Azores and Longroiva Spa, Mainland)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-16, July.
    11. Ascione, Fabrizio & Bellia, Laura & Minichiello, Francesco, 2011. "Earth-to-air heat exchangers for Italian climates," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 2177-2188.
    12. Gianluca Cadelano & Francesco Cicolin & Giuseppe Emmi & Giulia Mezzasalma & Davide Poletto & Antonio Galgaro & Adriana Bernardi, 2019. "Improving the Energy Efficiency, Limiting Costs and Reducing CO 2 Emissions of a Museum Using Geothermal Energy and Energy Management Policies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-18, August.
    13. 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.
    14. Ascione, Fabrizio & D'Agostino, Diana & Marino, Concetta & Minichiello, Francesco, 2016. "Earth-to-air heat exchanger for NZEB in Mediterranean climate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 553-563.
    15. Fridleifsson, Ingvar B., 2001. "Geothermal energy for the benefit of the people," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 299-312, September.
    16. Leszek Pająk & Barbara Tomaszewska & Wiesław Bujakowski & Bogusław Bielec & Marta Dendys, 2020. "Review of the Low-Enthalpy Lower Cretaceous Geothermal Energy Resources in Poland as an Environmentally Friendly Source of Heat for Urban District Heating Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-13, March.
    17. Thai-Ha Le, Youngho Chang, and Donghyun Park, 2020. "Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy Consumption, Economic Growth, and Emissions: International Evidence," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 73-92.
    18. 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.
    19. Zeng, Cheng & Liu, Shuli & Shukla, Ashish, 2017. "A review on the air-to-air heat and mass exchanger technologies for building applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 753-774.
    20. 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.
    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. Piotr Michalak, 2022. "Hourly Simulation of an Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger in a Low-Energy Residential Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-23, March.
    2. 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.
    3. Di Qi & Chuangyao Zhao & Shixiong Li & Ran Chen & Angui Li, 2021. "Numerical Assessment of Earth to Air Heat Exchanger with Variable Humidity Conditions in Greenhouses," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, March.
    4. D'Agostino, D. & Minichiello, F. & Petito, F. & Renno, C. & Valentino, A., 2022. "Retrofit strategies to obtain a NZEB using low enthalpy geothermal energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PD).
    5. Luca Cirillo & Adriana Greco & Claudia Masselli, 2023. "The Application of Barocaloric Solid-State Cooling in the Cold Food Chain for Carbon Footprint Reduction," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-17, September.

    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. Diana D’Agostino & Francesco Esposito & Adriana Greco & Claudia Masselli & Francesco Minichiello, 2020. "The Energy Performances of a Ground-to-Air Heat Exchanger: A Comparison Among Köppen Climatic Areas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-25, June.
    2. D'Agostino, D. & Minichiello, F. & Petito, F. & Renno, C. & Valentino, A., 2022. "Retrofit strategies to obtain a NZEB using low enthalpy geothermal energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PD).
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Qin, Di & Liu, Zhengxuan & Zhou, Yuekuan & Yan, Zhongjun & Chen, Dachuan & Zhang, Guoqiang, 2021. "Dynamic performance of a novel air-soil heat exchanger coupling with diversified energy storage components—modelling development, experimental verification, parametrical design and robust operation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 542-557.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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).
    9. 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.
    10. 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).
    11. 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.
    12. Lekhal, Mohammed Cherif & Benzaama, Mohammed-Hichem & Kindinis, Andrea & Mokhtari, Abderahmane-Mejedoub & Belarbi, Rafik, 2021. "Effect of geo-climatic conditions and pipe material on heating performance of earth-air heat exchangers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 22-40.
    13. 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).
    14. Adriana Greco & Edison Gundabattini & Darius Gnanaraj Solomon & Raja Singh Rassiah & Claudia Masselli, 2022. "A Review on Geothermal Renewable Energy Systems for Eco-Friendly Air-Conditioning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-17, July.
    15. Elombo Motoula, Smaël Magloire & Gomat, Landry Jean Pierre & Lin, Jian & M’passi Mabiala, Bernard, 2022. "Continuum approach to evaluate humidity transportation by an Earth to Air Energy Exchanger," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    16. 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.
    17. Soni, Suresh Kumar & Pandey, Mukesh & Bartaria, Vishvendra Nath, 2016. "Hybrid ground coupled heat exchanger systems for space heating/cooling applications: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 724-738.
    18. Cuny, Mathias & Lapertot, Arnaud & Lin, Jian & Kadoch, Benjamin & Le Metayer, Olivier, 2020. "Multi-criteria optimization of an earth-air heat exchanger for different French climates," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 342-352.
    19. Li, Hui & Ni, Long & Liu, Guang & Zhao, Zisang & Yao, Yang, 2019. "Feasibility study on applications of an Earth-air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) for preheating fresh air in severe cold regions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1268-1284.
    20. Mirzazade Akbarpoor, Ali & Haghighi Poshtiri, Amin & Biglari, Faraz, 2021. "Performance analysis of domed roof integrated with earth-to-air heat exchanger system to meet thermal comfort conditions in buildings," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 1265-1293.

    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:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:11:p:2925-:d:368329. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.