Improvement on the Calculation of Heat Transfer Rate for a New Type of Geothermal Energy Pile
Publication: IFCEE 2021
ABSTRACT
This study focuses on refining the solution used to calculate the heat transfer in a novel, self-operating geothermal energy pile based on the principle of a thermo-syphon. This new type of energy pile, formed by pressurizing a hollow helical pile with carbon dioxide (CO2) to form a heat pipe, is highly efficient, which could be an important alternative of existing energy pile. Specifically, this new type of energy pile utilizes spontaneous liquid–vapor phase change and natural convection inside the pile to transfer heat from the pile tip and the head. By isolating the pile from the soil and analyzing it as an independent heat transfer unit, the pile seems to have equivalent thermal conductivity that is thousand times of common metals. A simplified closed-form solution has been developed to estimate the heat transfer rate as well as equivalent thermal conductivity, which links the geometry of the energy pile with its thermal efficiency. This simplified solution could be used as a preliminary approach to assess such an energy pile system, but it has great room for improvement since the derivation used a number of assumptions. This study refines the simplified solution by replacing some of the assumptions with mathematical quantifying components and leads to more accurate heat transfer estimates.
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IFCEE 2021
Pages: 557 - 566
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Published online: May 6, 2021
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