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Design and Development of A Low-Cost Thermal Response Rig

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44 views4 pages

Design and Development of A Low-Cost Thermal Response Rig

Uploaded by

Christos Stiapis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Design and development of a low-cost thermal

response rig
researchgate.net/publication/275685079_Design_and_development_of_a_low-cost_thermal_response_rig

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Abstract

A thermal response test is a controlled in situ test during which a known quantity of heat
energy is injected into a closed loop heat-exchanger pipe while the heat dissipation rate
into the surrounding ground is monitored. Results from a test can be interpreted to
determine a number of ground thermal parameters that are vital design requirements for
any medium- to large-scale ground-source energy system. This paper describes the design
and construction of a low-cost thermal response test rig and compares the results
obtained from a test using the constructed rig and a commercially built rig in order to
evaluate the accuracy of the constructed equipment. The thermal response test rig is
designed in accordance with the following principles: keep construction costs low,
improve the cost-efficiency of thermal response test testing by incorporating remote data
transmission capability and ensure attainment of sufficient accuracy to satisfy the design
requirements of ground-source energy systems. Analysis of data collected by the thermal
response test rigs results in a calculated thermal conductivity of 1.9 W/mK in both cases.
This value falls within the range expected for the tested geological formation and confirms
the accuracy of both test rigs.

… 

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Experimental determination of thermal conductivity of soil with a


thermal response test
Optimal design of a borehole heat exchanger, as the outer part of a ground source heat
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data, the effective thermal conductivity of the soil lambda(eff) and the average
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boreholes. The determination of thermal conductivity of the soil in laboratory
experiments does not usually coincide with the data under in situ conditions. Therefore,
an in-situ method of experimental determination of these parameters, the so-called
thermal response test, is presented in this paper. In addition to the description of the

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experimental procedure and installation overview, the paper describes methods based on
theory and presents their basic limitations, through the presentation of experimental
data.

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Thermal response testing of compromised borehole heat exchangers


Article
Full-text available
August 2012
International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies

Phil Hemmingway

Michael Long

The results of five thermal response tests (TRTs) are presented. Three of the tests were
carried out consecutively on the same borehole to illustrate the importance of allowing
artificially imposed thermal gradients to dissipate prior to commencement or re-
commencement of a test following testing issues. The two remaining tests carried out on
separate boreholes confirm the results obtained by the first (uncompromised) of the
initial three tests. The testing regime demonstrates the necessity of careful performance of
TRT's and shows the variation in costs/required borehole length which may occur if
testing problems occur on site. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved.

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An in situ thermal response test for borehole heat exchangers of the ground-coupled heat
pump system
Article
October 2013
International Journal of Sustainable Energy

Weibo Yang

Zhenqian Chen

Mingheng Shi

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Chengbin Zhang

Thermal response tests (TRTs) are crucial for the estimation of the ground thermal
properties and thermal performance of the borehole heat exchanger (BHE) of the ground-
coupled heat pump (GCHP) system. In this article, a TRT apparatus was designed and
built to measure the temperature response of inlet and outlet sections of BHE in the test
borehole, the apparatus can effectively operate under both constant heating flux modes
and heat injection and extraction modes with a constant inlet temperature. A TRT for a
project of GCHP located in the Jiangsu province of China was carried out by the
experimental apparatus. Based on the experimental data, the heat transfer performances
of BHE under heating and cooling modes were evaluated, and the ground thermal
properties, which include the ground thermal conductivity, ground volumetric specific
heat, borehole thermal resistance and effective soil thermal resistance, were determined
by the line source model. The results indicate that the experimental device and analysis
model proposed in this article can be effectively applied to estimate the ground thermal
properties and thermal performance of BHE. During the process of thermal response of
ground, the fluid temperatures vary acutely at the start-stage of 8 h, and then tend to be a
steady state after 40 h. The test data during the start-stage should be discarded for
improving the estimation accuracy of ground thermal properties. At the same time, the
effective soil thermal resistance increases continuously with time and a steady-state value
would be reached after the start-time, and this steady-state thermal resistance can be
used to evaluate the required length of BHE. In addition, the heat transfer rate of the BHE
under different operating conditions can be used for the further evaluation on long-term
operation performance of GCHPs.

In-situ thermal response test of the ground thermal properties for a ground source heat
pump project located in the Inner Mongolia district
Article
July 2011

Weibo Yang

Xuan Wu

Ground thermal properties are important parameters for the design of ground heat
exchangers (GHE) used in ground source heat pump (GSHP). In order to estimate the
ground thermal properties of site, an experimental apparatus of in-situ thermal response
test (TRT) was designed and built to measure the temperature response of ground, the
experimental apparatus, test methodology and data analysis method were presented in
detail. Based on the apparatus and data analysis model, a test project of GSHP located in
the Hohhot of Inner Mongolia has been performed to determine the site ground thermal

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properties. The test results indicate that for the test borehole, the ground initial
temperature is about 8.9~9.2°C, the effective thermal conductivity and volumetric
specific heat are 2.25 W/(m·K) and 2045 kJ/(m3·K) respectively, and the borehole
thermal resistance is about 0.133 (m·K)/W. At the same time, the voltage stabilizer and
thermal insulation for exposed pipe should be used to improve test accuracy. The test data
after 10 h should be selected to proceed for obtaining the results. The experimental
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proposed in this paper is feasible and can be used for the determination of ground
thermal properties in the practical GSHP project.

Evaluation of heat exchange rate of GHE in geothermal heat pump systems


Article
December 2009
Renewable Energy

Total thermal resistance of ground heat exchanger (GHE) is comprised of that of the soil
and inside the borehole. The thermal resistance of soil can be calculated using the linear
source theory and cylindrical source theory, while that inside the borehole is more
complicated due to the integrated resistance of fluid convection, and the conduction
through pipe and grout. Present study evaluates heat exchange rate per depth of GHE by
calculating the total thermal resistance, and compares different methods to analyze their
similarities and differences for engineering applications. The effects of seven separate
factors, running time, shank spacing, depth of borehole, velocity in the pipe, thermal
conductivity of grout, inlet temperature and soil type, on the thermal resistance and heat
exchange rate are analyzed. Experimental data from several real geothermal heat pump
(GHP) applications in Shanghai are used to validate the present calculations. The
observations from this study are to provide some guidelines for the design of GHE in GHP
systems.

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