Proposal for a Method Predicting Suitable Areas for Installation of Ground-Source Heat Pump Systems Based on Response Surface Methodology

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 8; p. 1872
• Main Authors: Kaneko, Shohei, Tomigashi, Akira, Ishihara, Takeshi, Shrestha, Gaurav, Yoshioka, Mayumi, Uchida, Youhei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.04.2020
• Subjects: Computer simulation; Flow velocity; ground source heat pump; Groundwater; Groundwater flow; Heat; heat exchange rate; Heat exchangers; Heat pumps; Heat transfer; Heat transport; Hydraulics; hydrogeological information; Hydrogeology; Installation; Interpolation; Mathematical models; Numerical analysis; numerical simulation; Optimization techniques; Parameter estimation; Response surface methodology; Simulation; Software; Spatial resolution; surrogate model; Thermal conductivity; Three dimensional flow; Water flow; Europe; Japan
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en13081872

The installation potential of ground-source heat pump (GSHP) systems has been studied based on the spatial interpolation of numerical simulation results using ground heat exchanger (GHE) models. This study is the first to create an estimation formula for the heat exchange rate (HER) to obtain a solution equivalent to the numerical analysis results considering the average method when supplying three-dimensional (3D) hydrogeological information that affects the HER to a two-dimensional (2D) map. It was found that the main factors affecting the HER were groundwater flow velocity, subsurface temperature, and thermal conductivity. The response surface methodology was utilized to approximate the HER using the above-mentioned three parameters. The estimated HER showed very strong agreement with that calculated by the GHE models. The application of the estimation formula to the simulation of the 3D groundwater flow and heat transport model of the Sendai Plain (Japan) better reflects the hydrogeological information of the regional model than conventional maps. The proposed method improves the spatial resolution of maps and allows for the easy creation of the HER estimation formula.