Numerical Simulation of a Shallow Geothermal Heating/Cooling System
In recent years, sustainability concerns have played an increasingly important role in building design, leading to rapid adoption of shallow geothermal heating/cooling systems. Understanding the heat exchange with the ground and associated thermo-hydro-mechanical processes involved is critical to en...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111841 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3428-676X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5358-4140 |
| Summary: | In recent years, sustainability concerns have played an increasingly important role in building design, leading to rapid adoption of shallow geothermal heating/cooling systems. Understanding the heat exchange with the ground and associated thermo-hydro-mechanical processes involved is critical to ensure safe, efficient long-term performance of these geothermal systems. The current study considers heating/cooling loads for a large office building in Chicago, based on recommendations for typical DOE Commercial Benchmark Buildings and solves the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical response of different soil types using the Code_Bright program. The paper considers a closed-loop system comprising an array of 80 m deep vertical heat exchangers that operates on a seasonal cycle with zero net heat transfer to the ground and can supply a heating load up to 2440 kW. Using estimated thermal properties of the Chicago clays, the THM analyses show negligible drift in the temperature within the surrounding ground for long-term operation of the geothermal system. However, when thermo-elastoplastic properties are considered, the analyses show that thermal cycling induces long-term settlements of the building. |
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