Abstract
Geothermal energy is one of the potential energy resources to meet future energy demand keeping environmental pollution under control. This paper presents the use of geothermal energy for space heating from energy pile. An energy pile with a single U tube heat exchanger of polyethylene (PE) pipe was modeled in this study. The effect of pile and heat exchanger properties on the total heat extraction was studied by the finite element analysis using COMSOL Multiphysics. The 3D model was developed and validated based on the literature reported results of an experimental thermal performance of a borehole equipped with a single and double U tube heat exchanger. Tetrahedral elements were considered for simulation of a 3D model. The model of a single energy pile of certain dimensions with different soil layers was considered, each soil layers were associated with different temperature. The effect of various parameters such as the length of concrete pile, the diameter of concrete pile, the thickness of U pipe, the inner diameter of U pipe and velocity of fluid inside the U pipe on amount of heat extraction was studied for an energy pile equipped with a single U tube heat exchanger. It was observed that the most influential parameters in increasing the outlet temperature of the heat exchanger loop are the diameter of the concrete pile, the inner diameter of U pipe and the velocity of fluid inside the U pipe.
Highlights
Due to the rapid increase of population and improved living standards energy consumption has been increased continuously for the last couple of decades
The 3D model was developed and validated based on the results reported in the literature by Sivasakthivel et al [5], on the experimental investigation on the thermal performance of a borehole equipped with single and double U tube heat exchangers
From the numerical analysis of an energy pile equipped with a single heat exchanger U pipe following conclusions are obtained
Summary
Due to the rapid increase of population and improved living standards energy consumption has been increased continuously for the last couple of decades. Usually water with antifreeze agent is circulated with a certain velocity inside the PE pipe to extract or inject heat energy from the ground or into the ground. This technology is being used for space heating or cooling. The 3D model was developed and validated based on the results reported in the literature by Sivasakthivel et al [5], on the experimental investigation on the thermal performance of a borehole equipped with single and double U tube heat exchangers. Tetrahedral elements were created and simulation was carried out for 365 days
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