Numerical Analysis of Seasonal Heat Storage Systems of Alternative Geothermal Energy Pile Foundations
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 4
Abstract
Geothermal energy pile foundations are sustainable, cost-effective alternative energy systems for heating and cooling needs of buildings. This paper presents the thermal modeling of two different configurations of energy pile foundations used for seasonal energy storage. Several two-dimensional (2D) transient analyses were carried out to find the optimum pile configuration and to obtain preliminary information about the heat exchange between the ground and the building. Two scenarios were modeled. In Scenario 1, a combination of long and short piles was simulated, while in Scenario 2 only long piles were considered. Long piles are structural piles and work as a heat exchanger throughout the year, while the nonstructural short piles operate only in the summer months to inject surplus solar energy into the ground. Simulation results show that in Scenario 1 the vertical temperature distribution was uneven, resulted in high temperatures at shallow depths (0–10 m) and near-freezing temperatures at greater depths. In contrast, Scenario 2 yielded a more uniform temperature distribution throughout the depth. More importantly, in Scenario 2, the temperature inside the storage system was maintained well above the freezing temperature.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Aalto University Finland, TEKES, SPT Oy, and Emeca Oy for their financial support and Turku University of Applied Science for their collaboration throughout this project.
References
Allen, A., Milenic, D., and Sikora, P. (2003). “Shallow gravel aquifers and the urban ‘heat island’ effect: A source of low enthalpy geothermal energy.” Geothermics 32, 569–578.
Allen, A. R., McGovern, C., O’Brien, M., Leahy, K. L., and Connor, B. P. (1999) Hydrogeology and land use management, M. Fendekova and M. Fendek, eds., IAH, Bratislava, 655–664.
Andersland, O. B., and Ladanyi, B. (1994). An introduction to frozen ground engineering, Chapman & Hall, New York.
Arola, T., and Korkka-Niemi, K. (2014). “The effect of urban heat islands on geothermal potential: Examples from quaternary aquifers in Finland.” Hydrogeol. J., 1–15.
Banks, D., Gandy, C. J., Younger, P. L., Withers, J., and Underwood, C. (2009). “Anthropogenic thermogeological ‘anomaly’ in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, UK.” Q. J. Eng. Geol. Hydrogeol., 42(3), 307–312.
Brandl, H. (2006). “Energy foundations and other thermo-active ground structures.” Géotechnique, 56(2), 81–122.
Büdel, J., Fischer, L., and Busche, D. (1982). Climatic geomorphology, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Cervera, C. P. (2013). “Ground thermal modelling and analysis of energy pile foundations.” Master’s thesis, Aalto Univ., Espoo, Finland.
De Vries, D. A. (1963). “Thermal properties of soils.” Physics of planet environment, W. R. Van Wijk, ed., North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Dupray, F., Laloui, L., and Kazangba, A. (2014). “Numerical analysis of seasonal heat storage in an energy pile foundation.” Comput. Geotech., 55, 67–77.
Ferguson, G., and Woodbury, A. D. (2007). “Urban heat island in the subsurface.” Geophys. Res. Lett., 34(23), L23713.
Johansen, O. (1975). “Thermal conductivity of soils.” Ph.D. thesis, Trondheim, Norway.
Kersten, M. S. (1949). “Laboratory research for the determination of the thermal properties of soils.”.
Kersten, M. S. (1952). “Thermal properties of soils.”, 161–166.
Laloui, L., and Di Donna, A. (2011). “Understanding the behaviour of energy geo-structures.” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. Civ. Eng., 164(4), 184–191.
Landsberg, H. E. (1981). The urban climate, Vol. 28, Academic Press.
Leppäharju, N. (2008). “Geophysical and geological factors of bedrock energy utilisation.” Master thesis, Dept. of Physics, Geophysics, Oulu Univ., Finland, 91.
Loveridge, F. (2012). “The thermal performance of foundation piles used as heat exchangers in ground energy systems.” Doctoral thesis, Univ. of Southampton, Southampton, U.K.
Lu, S., Ren, T., Gong, Y., and Horton, R. (2007). “An improved model for predicting soil thermal conductivity from water content at room temperature.” SSSAJ 71(1), 8–14.
Nyholm, V. (2011). “Utilization of energy piles in building services concepts.” Master thesis, Aalto Univ., Espoo, Finland.
Pentland, J. S. (2000). Use of general partial differential equation solver for solution of heat and mass transfer problems in soils, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, DC.
Pirinen, P., Simola, H., Aalto, J., Kaukoranta, J.-P., Karlsson, P., and Ruuhela, R. (2012). “Climatological statistics of Finland 1981–2010.”, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
Sundberg, J. (1988). “Thermal properties of soils and rocks.”, Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Linköping, Sweden.
Thode, R. (2013). SVHeat tutorial manual, SoilVisions Systems, Saskatoon, Canada.
Thode, R., and Zhang, J. (2012). SVHeat 1D/2D/3D geothermal modeling software: Theory manual, M. Fredlund, ed., Soil Vision Systems, Saskatoon, Canada.
Tietäväinen, H., Tuomenvirta, H., and Venäläinen, A. (2010). “Annual and seasonal mean temperatures in Finland during the last 160 years based on gridded temperature data.” Int. J. Climatol., 30(15), 2247–2256.
Zhu, K., Blum, P., Ferguson, G., Balke, K. D., and Bayer, P. (2010). “The geothermal potential of urban heat islands.” Environ. Res. Lett., 5(4), 044002.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 4 • December 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 28, 2014
Accepted: Aug 8, 2014
Published online: Sep 17, 2014
Discussion open until: Feb 17, 2015
Published in print: Dec 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.