Numerical Study on the Long-Term Performance and Load Imbalance Ratio for Medium-Shallow Borehole Heat Exchanger System

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 15; no. 9; p. 3444
• Main Authors: Wang, Ruifeng, Wang, Fenghao, Xue, Yuze, Jiang, Jinghua, Zhang, Yuping, Cai, Wanlong, Chen, Chaofan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.05.2022
• Subjects: Arrays; borehole heat exchanger array; Boreholes; Carbon; Cooling; Design parameters; Drilling; Emissions; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Finite element analysis; Finite volume method; Geothermal energy; Geothermal power; Heat exchangers; Heating load; load imbalance ratio; load shifting; long-term performance; Mathematical models; medium-shallow borehole heat exchanger; Neutralization; Numerical models; Simulation; Software; China
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en15093444

To contribute to the goal of carbon neutralization, the closed-loop borehole heat exchanger system is widely applied to use geothermal energy for building cooling and heating. In this work, a new type of medium-shallow borehole heat exchanger (MSBHE) is proposed, which is coaxial type and has a depth range between 200 m to 500 m. To investigate the long-term performance of MSBHE in the area with unbalanced cooling and heating load of buildings and the sustainable load imbalance ratio under different design parameters, a comprehensive numerical model is established. The results show that the drilling depth significantly influences the sustainable load imbalance ratio of MSBHE. As the drilling depth is increased from 200 m to 500 m, the load imbalance ratio of the MSBHE increases from 20.76% to 60.29%. In contrast, the load imbalance ratio is always kept at the same level with different inlet velocities and operation modes. Furthermore, in a 9-MSBHE array system, the heat exchanger located in the middle of the array has the lowest load imbalance ratio of 48.97%, which is 15.98% lower than the borehole in the edge location. This is caused by the significant influence of the shifted-load phenomenon among MSBHEs in an array system. The findings of the work imply that this newly proposed MSBHE can sustain a notable load imbalance ratio, which is particularly applicable to the areas with a strong imbalance of annual building load.