A finite line source model with Cauchy-type top boundary conditions for simulating near surface effects on borehole heat exchangers
Jaime A. Rivera,
Philipp Blum and
Peter Bayer
Energy, 2016, vol. 98, issue C, 50-63
Abstract:
BHEs (borehole heat exchangers) are the most common shallow geothermal applications. By approximating the BHE as a line source, semi-analytical models can describe the heat exchange within the ground. These models though always assume prescribed temperature at the ground surface. This work presents a formulation which expands existing finite line source models by implementing a more general Cauchy-type top boundary condition and in this way, a better estimation of the heat fluxes at the ground surface. The new formulation is numerically verified and examined in a dimensionless analysis. It is demonstrated that the discrepancy to prescribed temperature settings is significant near to the ground surface, and it propagates deeper when groundwater flow is absent and when strong decoupling between the thermal regimes interacting at the land surface is assumed. The new approach shows to be suited especially for short BHEs, both for more flexible and accurate prediction of the ground thermal regime as well as for long-term analysis of technological performance.
Keywords: Ground heat exchange; Ground surface temperature; Shallow geothermal energy; Finite line source; Ground source heat pump (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544215017740
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:98:y:2016:i:c:p:50-63
DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.12.129
Access Statistics for this article
Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser
More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().