Research on Performance of the Coupled Heat and Mass Transfer in Ground Source Heat Pump System

Abstract

Environmental improvements require waste minimization, reduced air pollution from vehicles, distributed energy generation, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Utilizing solar energy, geothermal energy, waste heat and exhaust heat as the heat source to complete the refrigerating and air conditioning process is an important way to develop more efficient utilization of energy. Therefore, ground source heat pumps (GSHP) driven by ground heat have outstanding energy saving effect since they are operated at high coefficient of performance (COP) without air pollution. GSHP is widely developed because of its outstanding advantages in energy conservation and environmental protection. Soil heat used by GSHP is pollution-free. The development of GSHP is restricted by many factors, and the key one is the heat and mass transfer performance of ground heat exchanger (GHE). This study takes GHE as the object and then researches its heat and mass transfer performance. The three-dimensional numerical model of the coupled heat and mass transfer is established so as to analysis the heat and mass transfer under different initial soil temperatures and soil moisture contents. The dual purpose of this study is to evaluate the numerical model of the coupled heat and mass transfer and to analyze the heat and mass transfer performance.