A New Approach for Characterizing Pile Heat Exchangers Using Thermal Response Tests

Charles Maragna and Fleur Loveridge
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Charles Maragna: BRGM, F-45060 Orléans, France
Fleur Loveridge: School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Pile heat exchangers offer a cost effective route to implementation of ground-source heat pump systems for many large commercial buildings compared with traditional boreholes. Such projects typically use thermal response tests to determine the key input parameters for system design, namely soil thermal conductivity and heat exchanger thermal resistance. However, this brings challenges for pile heat exchanger based systems, where in situ thermal response tests are known to be less reliable due to the large thermal capacity of the pile. This paper presents a new “black box” resistance capacitive model for applications to pile thermal response tests. The approach is tested against case study data and shown to perform well. Additional test duration savings are shown to be possible if a novel combination of borehole and pile thermal response tests is applied together to determine design parameters.

Keywords: thermal response testing; pile heat exchanger; energy piles; ground-source heat pump systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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