Thermal interactions between water and rock in an underground hot-water store

G. Rehbinder

Applied Energy, 1985, vol. 20, issue 2, 103-116

Abstract: Storing solar or surplus heat in enormous unlined rock caverns has attracted considerable interest in Sweden. A comprehensive research programme on this subject has been running since 1982 in the city of Avesta, where a district-heating system has been completed with a hot water accumlator blasted in the rock. In the present paper it is shown that, if the cavity is assumed to be spherical, the complete mathematical formulation of the dynamic interaction between the temperatures of the stored water, of the rock mass and of the supply power can be solved. The results yield expressions for the rate of change of temperature, for time constants expressed in terms of the thermal properties of the rock and the water and linear dimensions of the cavity. For a relatively small store, like the one in Avesta (15 000 m3), the time for spontaneous cooling is extremely long (> 10 years). For big commercial stores it is even longer.

Date: 1985
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