Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462 www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

A new integrated system with cooling storage in soil and ground-coupled heat pump
Yanshun Yu
b

a,*

, Zuiliang Ma b, Xianting Li

a School of Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, PR China School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, PR China c Department of Building Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China

Received 6 July 2006; accepted 11 September 2007 Available online 25 September 2007

Abstract For the purpose of decreasing the peak electricity, balancing the on and o-peak electric load and utilizing the renewable geothermal energy, a new integrated system with cooling storage in soil and a ground-coupled heat pump is presented. In the integrated system, the moist soil acts as the material for cooling storage, and pipes serve as the cooling storage devices and geothermal heat exchangers simultaneously. In the cooling season, the cooling energy is stored in soil during the o-peak period and is extracted for space cooling during the on-peak period. While in other seasons, the system works as a ground-coupled heat pump for heating or cooling. A mathematical model which describes the charging and discharging processes of the integrated system has been developed and validated, and a computer code has been implemented to simulate the operational performance of cooling charging and discharging in soil. A parametric study indicates that the charging inlet temperature, tube diameter, moisture content of soil and pipe distance are important factors in determining the cyclic performance of the integrated system. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Integrated system; Cooling storage in soil; Ground-coupled heat pump; Underground heat exchanger; Cooling charging and discharging

1. Introduction The studies on how to shift the on-peak electric load and to utilize the renewable energy are the common goal nowadays in the eld of air conditioning. Ice storage and ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) are two main technologies in such kinds of applications. While the former is aimed to reduce the air conditioning on-peak electrical demand and the latter is to utilize the renewable geothermal energy. The rst known record using ground as a heat source for a heat pump was in a Swiss patent issued in 1912 to Heinrich Zoelly [1], and later this kind of devices were called as GCHP. The GCHP systems oer an attractive alternative

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 025 84315485. E-mail address: yuyanshun@126.com (Y. Yu).

for both residential and commercial heating and cooling applications and they oer signicant energy use and demand reductions on the power grid [2,3]. Therefore, they are recognized to be energy ecient heating and cooling systems [4]. In recent years, most studies have concentrated on enhancing the GCHP system performance, improving the accuracy of the design method and reducing the size of the borehole heat exchangers (BHE). In a rst stage, the research mainly focused on the heat transfer model and simulation method [58], thermal performance of BHE and ground or backll materials [911]. Then many eorts aimed at the denition of a reliable software tool and a simpler and more accurate testing procedure to determine ground properties in order to design the system correctly [12,13]. At present, the studies about the accurate modelling [14,15], technoeconomic appraisal and comparison [16,17] are still being performed.

1359-4311/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2007.09.006

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

1451

Nomenclature c D fs H j L Q r rp T t u W x specic heat (J kg1 C1) diameter (m) solid phase factor (%) latent heat (J kg1) ag, for inner pipe j = 0 and for outer pipe j = 1 leg distance of U-tube (m) cooling energy (J) radial coordinate (m) half a borehole distance (m) temperature (C) time (s) velocity (m s1) moisture content by weight (%) axis coordinate (m) k h thermal conductivity (W m1 C1) azimuth

Greek letters a convective heat transfer coecient (W m2 C1) q density (kg m3)

Subscripts ei inner eo outer f uid fr frozen inlet m mushy p pipe s soil o initial ufr unfrozen d dry dis discharged ch charged

Due to the increase in energy costs and the development of GCHP, more and more GCHP projects are being implemented in the world. Lund and Freeston [18] reported that the worldwide application of GCHP systems have had a considerable growth of almost 59% since 1995, and at the beginning of 2000, the installed capacity in 26 countries was around 5275 MW. Although the GCHP technology has a popular development in the world, the large area required and the heating or cooling capacity decrease for long-term operation have limited further applications on a large scale. Especially in cooling mode, the conductivity of the soil around the coils decreases notably as the soil is dried by the rejected heat [19]. This will reduce the cooling energy provided by the GCHP and may not satisfy the designed requirement for several years operation. For example, the rst GCHP system installed in Shanghai in 1989 has met the diculty in rejecting heat in cooling seasons [20]. On the other hand, cooling of commercial buildings in Beijing consume about 3050% of their total electricity consumption, and the cooling load mostly occurs during the peak period, which results in high peak demand of electricity. Ice storage is a technology where cooling energy is produced and stored in a insulated storage tank at night, and then is extracted for cooling during on-peak period. Therefore, the ice storage technology is an alternative strategy to reduce the high peak-load demand for space cooling. There are a number of research works reported on the theoretical analysis and experimental study on ice storage system. Shin et al. [21] studied the water spray evaporation method for ice particle production with theoretical and experimental approach. Eames and Adref [22] presented an experimental study aimed at the characteristics of the

freezing and melting processes for water contained in spherical elements. The water solidication phenomenon for ice-on-coil has been simulated by Soltan and Ardehali [23] and the amount of time needed for solidication of water around a circular cross-section coil has been determined. Although there are a few applications of ice storage systems [24], the larger volume and higher initial cost of ice storage devices have restricted its wide applications. Therefore, how to overcome the disadvantages of the GCHP and ice storage will be a challenge. For the purpose of balancing the on and o-peak electric load and utilizing the renewable geothermal energy, a new integrated system with cooling storage in soil and ground-coupled heat pump system is presented in this paper. Although there has been research on cooling thermal energy storage in soil, these are seasonal energy storage [2527], and the system with cooling storage in soil under short time cycles and integrated with a GCHP system aimed to cut the peak-load and utilize the geothermal energy has not been reported. In this paper, a mathematical model described the charging and discharging processes of the integrated system is established, and the validation and parameter studies are performed. 2. Conguration and principle of the integrated system Fig. 1 shows a new integrated system with cooling storage and ground-coupled heat pump system. The system is composed of a duplex-mode heat pump unit, cooling tower, underground pipes, pumps. In the system, the buried pipes serve as the thermal storage devices and geothermal heat exchangers simultaneously, and in dierent operational mode the dierent pipe distance is required.

1452

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

5 6

5 6

1 8

1 8

2 3 12

4
12

2 3

10

9 Open Closed

10

11

11

Fig. 1. Schematic of the integrated system. (1) compressor, (2) condenser, (3) throttling device, (4) evaporator, (5) closed circuit cooling tower, (6, 8, 12) pump, (7) load, (9, 10) header and (11) underground heat exchangers.

(a) Flow diagram of charging

7 6

In summer, the cooling energy is stored in the moist soil during the nighttime, during the daytime the cooling energy is extracted for space cooling, so the buried pipes require a small pipe distance to reduce the cooling loss. While in other seasons, the system operates on conventional mode of GCHP, so a more larger pipe distance is required to ensure the comeback of soil energy. According to the load of buildings and the operation strategy of the system, the integrated system can operate in the following modes: 1. Cooling charging and discharging mode. In summer, the heat pump unit operates on low-temperature condition and stores the cooling energy in the moist soil partially or fully during the o-peak period. During the daytime, the unit stops running and the cooling energy stored in soil is discharged to satisfy the cooling requirement of buildings. The ow diagrams of this mode are shown in Fig. 2. In this mode, the power consumption during on-peak period is cut down signicantly and the running cost of the system is decreased. 2. Conventional mode of the GCHP system. In winter and transitional seasons, the integrated system operates in heating and/or cooling mode of the conventional GCHP system, the soil takes as the heat source or sink of the heat pump system. The schematic diagram of this mode is shown in Fig. 3. 3. Mathematical model of charging and discharging processes In the charging and discharging processes of the integrated system, the heat transfer of soil around the pipes

2 3 12

9 Open Closed

10

11

(b) Flow diagram of discharging

Fig. 2. Flow diagram of cooling thermal charging and discharging of soil.

is a cyclic phase change process with freezing and unfreezing. In the charging period, the low-temperature uid (usually 4 to 6 C) is pumped to the pipes and stores cooling energy in the moist soil, and the soil temperature around pipes drops and then begins to gradually freeze. While in discharging period, the returned warm uid of load side enters the pipes and extracts the cooling stored in soil, as a result the frozen soil absorbs the heat and begins to unfreeze. In cooling season, the freezing and unfreezing of soil is cyclic with the charging and discharging processes.

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

1453

5 6

1 8

2 3 12

Inner pipes
4

Open Closed

10

Outer pipes

Isothermal outer boundary

11

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of pipes bundle.

(a) Heating mode

(1) The moist soil is homogeneous. (2) The eect of coupled heat and moisture transfer during freezing and unfreezing is ignored. (3) The phase change of soil water occurs in a small temperature range, and the thermal properties in frozen and unfrozen soil regions are constant but not necessarily equal. (4) Using the equivalent diameter method to deal with the U-tube, and p the equivalent diameter of the Utube is Deo 2Do L, where Do and L are outer diameter and leg distance of U-tube, respectively, [11]. (5) The eect of surface temperature is ignored, and the boundary between two pipes is adiabatic. For inner pipes, the problem is axially symmetric and only the radial direction is considered. While for outer pipes, the radial and azimuth direction are considered together. (6) The temperature and velocity of uid are uniform at any coil cross-section and the initial moisture content and temperature in soil at any point are also uniform. With these assumptions, the following equations can be derived for the charging and discharging periods of the integrated system. (a) Heat ux in the uid within the pipe and pipe inner wall  oT f oT f 2kp oT p   ; r < rei : u 1 ot ox qcf rei or rrei (b) Energy balance in the pipe wall     oT p kp o oT p kp o 1 oT p r qcp j ; ot r or or r oh r or 2

5 6

1 8

2 3 12

9 Open Closed 11

10

(b) Cooling mode

Fig. 3. Flow diagram of GCHP operation mode.

In the charging and discharging periods of the integrated system, cooling losses always exists, and the losses is mainly due to the heat transfer between the outer boundary of pipes and the undisturbed soil. Therefore, to reduce cooling losses, the duplex-functional underground heat exchangers should be arranged in bundles and with equal borehole distance. The schematic diagram of pipe bundles and the single inner and outer pipe are shown in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. The mathematical model of charging and discharging processes is based on the energy balance subject to the following assumptions:

1454

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

  oT p   : aT p T f rr kp ei or rrei
r ei
re
o

(a) Inner pipe

B.C.4

B.C.1

B.C.

rp
0
rp

At the interface of soil and tube outer wall 8   < kp oT p  ks oT s rreo ; or  or rreo :T j T j :
p rreo s rreo

At the thermal interface of adjacent two boreholes (for j = 0)  oT s   0: 8 or rrp At the far-eld boundary (at B.C.4, for j = 1) T s r; h; t T o : 9

At the thermal interface of adjacent inner and outer pipes (at B.C.2)   oT s r; h; t oT s r; h; t   0 10   or oh rrp rrp At the thermal interface of adjacent outer pipes (at B.C.1 and B.C.3) oT s r; h; t oT s r; h; t 0: or oh (g) Initial condition (at t = 0) T f t T p r; h; t T s r; h; t T 0 : (h) Fluid inlet condition T f x 0; t T fi t; 12 11

r ei
re
o

B.C.2

13

(b) Outer pipe

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of single inner and outer pipe.

where j is a ag, for the inner pipes j = 0, and for the outer pipes j = 1. (c) Frozen region of soil     oT fr kfr o oT fr kfr o 1 oT fr r qcfr j : ot r or or r oh r oh 3 (d) Unfrozen region of soil     oT ufr kfur o oT ufr kufr o 1 oT ufr qcufr j : r ot r or or r oh r oh 4 (e) Mushy region of soil     oT m 1 o oT m 1 o km oT m rkm qcm j r or r oh r oh ot or ofs : 5 qd W H ot (f) Boundary conditions At the interface of uid and tube inner wall

where T is a known function of time t. The model described so far is for the charging and discharging processes with uid circulation. During the o cycle period, the uid velocity, u, in Eq. (1) is zero and the boundary condition of Eq. (6) does not exist. Eq. (1) serves as the boundary condition for Eq. (2).

4. Model validation In order to validate the mathematic model established above, a laboratory sand box experimental rig which simulated the charging and discharging process of the inner pipe was built, as shown in Fig. 6a [28]. The outdoor fan coil was used to supply low-temperature uid through heat exchanging with cold air in winter. The size of the sand box was 2.5 m in length, 1.25 m in width and 1.8 m in hight. In the box, the U-tube was laid three layers in series in vertical and in every layer there were two rows side by side, and the outer boundary of every row pipes at diameter 0.5 m was insulated to simulate the adiabatic boundary of the inner pipes of bundle, as shown in Fig. 7. The total length of the U-tube was 32.9 m. For the adiabatic and axially symmetric condition of every row pipes, the horizontal arranged pipe could be used to simulate the vertical U-

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

1455

(a) Experimental rig

3500 2# 3# 4# 5# 6# 50 50 50 50 6500 7# 8# 9# 10 # 50 50 50 5650 50 50 50 800 11 # 12 # 13 # 14 #

(b) Layout of the temperature sensors

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the experiment rig.

tube. In order to measure the temperature distribution around the tube, 13 thermometers with Pt100 (#2#14) were located at three dierent sections, and in every section the thermometers distributed every 50 mm from center of the U-tube, as shown in Fig. 6b. The experiment began with two-day pre-storage of cooling and then operated seven days with the cycle of 12 h charging, 8 h discharging and 4 h stopping. The uid was waterethylene glycol (30% by weight) mixture, and the ow rate during the cooling pre-storage, charging and discharging periods were 0.314, 0.311 and 0.388 m3/h, respectively. Accordingly, the uid velocities in the pipe were 0.77, 0.76 and 0.95 m/s. The initial temperature of the buried pipe, uid and soil were uniform and equal to 10 C. In the experiment, the sand temperature distribution, inlet and outlet temperature of uid were recorded hourly. The parameters of pipe and sand are shown in Table 1.

The input data of the model are: (1) the physical properties and geometrical parameters of the pipe materials (density, specic heat, thermal conductivity, length, diameter and pipe distance); (2) density, specic heat and thermal conductivity for both frozen and unfrozen states, and moisture content by weight of soil; (3) uid density, specic heat, thermal conductivity, ow rate and inlet temperature. The outputs of the model are the uid and coil temperatures along the coil, the soil temperature distribution around the coil, the energy exchange between uid and coil and energy ow from soil to coil or inverse. Fig. 8 shows the comparison of calculated and experimental results on hourly uid outlet temperature and tem-

1456

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

ature of pipes. From the gure it can be seen that the model predicts the test results very well. In view of the complicated nature of this problem, it is concluded that the model can be used to analyze and predict the cyclic charging and discharging performance of the integrated system with cooling storage in soil and ground-coupled heat pump. 5. Parametric studies The charging and discharging performance of the integrated system involves many factors. A parametric study provides the information to determine the relative importance of each factor and thus to improve the performance of the integrated system. The parameters selected for investigation were: (1) tube diameter, (2) charging inlet temperature, (3) moisture content of soil, (4) pipe distance, and (5) time of cooling pre-storage. As a basis for comparison, a base run was completed with the following parameters and operation conditions: (1) 15 mm nominal diameter high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe; (2) 5 C/12 C charging and discharging inlet temperature and 12 C far-eld and initial soil temperatures; (3) 0.5 m pipe (borehole) distance; (4) 50 m pipe length; (5) 1.5 m far-eld radius; (6) 0.52/0.38 m3/h charging and discharging volumetric ow rate (Reynolds number is 2400); (7) 18% moisture content by dry soil weight with kfr = 3.05 W/(m C) in the frozen soil and kufr = 2.18 W/(m C) in the unfrozen soil region; (8) three days pre-storage and 30 days cyclic operation with 8 h discharging, 10 h charging and 6 h stopping. In order to analyze the inuence of each factor presented above on the performance of the integrated system, the simulation of a single inner and outer pipe in the cyclic steady operation was performed, and the results are as follows. 5.1. Tube diameter The tube diameter is an important parameter of the integrated system design. In order to analyze the eect of tube diameter on charging and discharging performance, an operation condition with 20 mm diameter tube and the Reynolds number 2400 in charging and discharging is performed. Fig. 11 shows the eect of tube diameter on dis-

(a) Photos of the buried pipes in sand box

sand

U-tube Adiabatic layer

(b) Layout of the buried pipes in sand box

Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of the buried U-tube.

perature dierence between inlet and outlet of pipe uid during the pre-storage period. It can be seen that the calculated results are coincident with the test results, with the error of more about 0.1 to 0.2 C in the outlet temperature between the measured and calculated data. Fig. 9 shows the deviation of the comparison between the test and the simulated charging cooling energy, the errors are within 10% mostly. Fig. 10 shows the comparison of calculated and experimental results for seven days on hourly outlet uid temperTable 1 Properties of the heat exchanger pipe and the sand used in the experiment Name Dry density of sand Moisture content by weight Pipe material Density of pipe material Inner/outer diameter Pipe distance Unit kg m3 % kg m3 mm M Value 1535 8.61 HDPE 953 12/16 0.5 Name

0.

5m

Unit W m1 C1 J kg1 C1 W m1 C1 J kg1 C1 mm m

Value 1.19 900 0.517 2302.7 32 32.9

Thermal conductivity of sand Specic heat of sand Thermal conductivity of pipe material Specic heat of pipe material Pipe legs distance Pipe length

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

1457

-2.0 -2.5 -3.0 -3.5 -4.0 -4.5 -5.0 -5.5 -6.0 -6.5 -7.0 2.4 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6

Temperature difference (C) Temperature (C)

Experimental inlet temperature Experimental outlet temperature Simulated outlet temperature

1:00

5:00

9:00

13:00

17:00

21:00

1:00

5:00

9:00

13:00

17:00

21:00

Experimental Results Simulated Results

1:00

5:00

9:00

13:00 17:00 21:00

1:00

5:00

9:00

13:00 17:00 21:00

The time of day (h)

Fig. 8. Comparison of the uid outlet temperature between simulation and test during the pre-storage period.

3.0 2.8

Hourly cool storage (MJ)

2.6 2.4 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8

Experimental Data Simulated Data With 10% Error

23:00 2:00 5:00 8:00 11:00 14:00 17:00 20:00 23:00 2:00 5:00 8:00 11:00 14:00 17:00 20:00

The time of day (h)

Fig. 9. Comparison of the hourly charged cooling energy between simulation and test during the pre-storage period.

13.0 12.5 12.0 11.5 11.0 10.5 10.0 9.5 9.0 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 -2.5 -3.0 -3.5 -4.0 -4.5 -5.0 -5.5 -6.0 -6.5

Temperature (C)

Experimental inlet temperature Experimental outlet temperature Simulated outlet temperature

7:00 17:00 7:00 17:00 7:00 17:00 7:00 17:00 7:00 17:00 7:00 17:00 7:00 17:00

The time of day (h)

Fig. 10. Comparison of uid outlet temperature between simulation and test during the cyclic operation.

1458

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

Fig. 11. Eect of pipe diameter on discharging outlet temperature.

Fig. 13. Eect of charging inlet temperature on discharging outlet temperature.

charging outlet temperature with the cyclic steady state. It can be seen that the daily average discharging outlet temperature of the inner and outer pipe increases 0.5 and 0.25 C with the increasing of the tube diameter, respectively. However as can be seen in Fig. 12 the total charging and discharging energy have increased by 24.2% for the inner pipe, while 17.8% and 25.1% for the outer pipe as compared with the base run operation.

5.2. Charging inlet temperature In the charging process, the uid inlet temperature inuences the soil frozen condition around the pipe, the amount of the stored cooling energy in the soil and the discharging outlet temperature. Fig. 13 shows that the daily average pipe discharging outlet temperature has increased by

(a) Inner Pipe (a) Inner Pipe

(b) Outer Pipe (b) Outer Pipe

Fig. 12. Eect of pipe diameter on total charging and discharging energy. Fig. 14. Eect of charging inlet temperature on total charging and discharging energy.

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

1459

1.8 C for the inner pipe and by 0.8 C for the outer pipe, respectively, while the pipe charging inlet temperature increased from 5 to 2 C. Moreover, the daily total charging and discharging energy has dropped about 30.0% and 19.6% for the inner and outer pipe, respectively (Fig. 14). This indicates that the lower charging inlet temperature helps in improving the operation performance of the integrated system, while it is not benecial for the eciency of the chiller. Therefore, under the condition with the discharging temperature and energy satisfying the air conditioning system, the higher charging inlet temperature is more economical. 5.3. Pipe (borehole) distance The buried pipes in the integrated system serve as the thermal storage devices and geothermal heat exchangers simultaneously, and for dierent operational modes, the requirements of the pipe distance are dierent. For example, in the heating and cooling mode of GCHP system, a larger pipe distance is required, while it is reverse in the case of charging and discharging modes. Hence, the pipe distance is an important parameter for the integrated system. Fig. 15 shows the relationship between the hourly discharging outlet temperature and the pipe distance under the cyclic steady condition. It can be seen that the hourly discharging temperature of the outer pipes has enhanced with increasing the pipe distance, while for the inner pipe it has not been inuenced. Moreover, in the cyclic steady condition, the daily total charging and discharging energy of the inner pipes keep constant in dierent pipe space. But for the outer pipes, the daily total charging energy has increased nearly 6.0% and the discharging energy has dropped by 23.3% with the pipe distance increasing from 0.5 to 1.0 m (Fig. 16). 5.4. Cooling pre-storage time Before the charging and discharging operation, the initial soil temperature is higher and should be decreased to ensure that the pipe discharging outlet temperature satises the air conditioning system. Therefore, the cooling prestorage to the soil is necessary.

(a) Inner pipe

(b) Outer pipe

Fig. 16. Eect of pipe distance on total charging and discharging energy.

Fig. 17 shows the inuence of cooling pre-storage time on discharging outlet temperature of the inner and outer pipe in cyclic steady state. It can be seen that the hourly discharging outlet temperature of the inner and outer pipe have the same results in the condition with one day and three days pre-storage operation. Fig. 18 shows the eect of cooling pre-storage on the daily total charging and discharging cooling energy of the inner and outer pipe, and

Fig. 15. Eect of pipe distance on discharging outlet temperature.

Fig. 17. Eect of cooling pre-storage time on discharging outlet temperature.

1460

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

(a) Inner pipe (a) Inner pipe

(b) Outer pipe

Fig. 18. Eect of cooling pre-storage on total charging and discharging energy.

(b) Outer pipe

Fig. 19. Relations between daily charging/discharging energy and prestorage time.

2.4 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4

Soil conductivity (Wm-1oC-1)

Soil specific heat (Jkg-1oC-1)

fr ufr

2200 2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000

c fr c ufr

10

15

20

25

30

35

10

15

20

25

30

35

Soil moisture content W(%)

Soil moisture content W(%)

Fig. 20. Inuence of soil moisture content on soil thermal properties.

they have the same conclusions. In other words, when the system reaches steady state, the cooling pre-storage time does not inuence the charging and discharging performance, but it aects the performance before the system reaching steady (Fig. 19).

5.5. Moisture content of soil In the charging and discharging operation mode, the soil is taken as the cooling storage media, so the moisture content of soil will aect its thermal properties and the system

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462

1461

pled heat pump system is presented. A mathematical model based on the theory of heat transfer coupled with phase change which describes the charging and discharging process of the integrated system has been established. A computer code has been completed to simulate the heat transfer process with the freezing and unfreezing of soil water. Moreover, the mathematical model has been validated by laboratory tests for the charging and discharging cyclic operation, and the results show that the mathematical model predicts the test results very well. thus the mathematical model can be used to analyze the steady state performance of the soil charging and discharging process. This paper presents a new integrated system in which the ground coils operate in charging and discharging modes is studied in detail. While the ground coils operate in dierent modes in a year, therefore, the further study for the whole year operational performance, cooling loss, economic analysis and the optimal design of the integrated system will be done in the near future.
Fig. 21. Eect of soil moisture content on discharging outlet temperature.

Acknowledgement This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50378024). References
[1] D.A. Ball, R.D. Fischer, D.L. Hodgett, Design methods for groundsource heat pumps, ASHRAE Transactions 89 (2) (1983) 416440. [2] M. Ramamoorthy, H. Jin, Optimal sizing of hybrid ground source heat pump systems that use a cooling pond as a supplemental heat rejecter a system simulation approach, ASHRAE Transactions 107 (1) (2001) 2637. [3] S.P. Kavanaugh, Field test of vertical ground-coupled heat pump in Alabama, ASHRAE Transactions 98 (2) (1992) 607616. [4] P.S. Doherty, S.A. Huthaili, S.B. Riat, N. Abodahab, Ground source heat pump-description and preliminary results of the eco house system, Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 26272641. [5] C. Yavuzturk, J.D. Spitler, A transient two-dimensional nite volume model for the simulation of vertical U-tube ground heat exchangers, ASHRAE Transactions 105 (2) (1999) 465474. [6] X.G. Li, J. Zhao, Q. Zhou, Inner heat source model with heat and moisture transfer in soil around the underground heat exchanger, Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 15651577. [7] V.C. Mei, C.J. Emerson, New approach for analysis of ground coil design for applied heat pump systems, ASHRAE Transactions 91 (2) (1985) 12161224. [8] Y.H. Bi, L.G. Chen, C. Wu, Ground heat exchanger temperature distribution analysis and experimental verication, Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 183189. [9] C. Yavuzturk, A.D. Chiasson, Performance analysis of U-tube, concentric tube, and standing column well ground heat exchangers using a system simulation approach, ASHRAE Transactions 108 (1) (2002) 925938. [10] F.J. Lenarduzzi, H.S. Radhakrishna, C.B.H. Cragg, The importance of grouting to enhance the performance of earth energy system, ASHRAE Transactions 106 (1) (2000) 424434. [11] Y. Gu, D.L. ONeal, Modeling the eect of backlls on U-tube ground coil performance, ASHRAE Transactions 104 (2) (1998) 356362. [12] M. Parent, A simplied tool for assessing the feasibility of ground source heat pump projects, ASHRAE Transactions 107 (1) (2001) 120129.

Fig. 22. Eect of moisture content on heat ux per-unit length pipe.

performance. The soil thermal properties with dierent moisture content are shown in Fig. 20. Fig. 21 shows the eect of moisture content of clay on the hourly discharging outlet temperature of the inner pipe in the steady state. It can be seen that the daily average discharging temperature of inner pipe decreases from 7.7 to 6.9 C and 6.1 C with the soil moisture content increasing from 15% to 25% and 35%, respectively. Moreover as can be seen in Fig. 22, the heat ux per-unit length of pipe increases linearly with the moisture content of soil, and the charging and discharging heat ux increases from 25.8 to 34.7 W/m and from 32.3 to 43.5 W/m, respectively. Therefore, the moisture content of soil is very important parameter and can be done articially in order to improve the performance of the integrated system. 6. Conclusion For the purpose of shifting the on-peak electric power and utilizing the renewable geothermal energy, a new integrated system with cooling storage in soil and ground-cou-

1462

Y. Yu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 14501462 [22] I.W. Eames, K.T. Adref, Freezing and melting of water in spherical enclosures of the type used in thermal (ice) storage systems, Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 733745. [23] B.K. Soltan, M.M. Ardehali, Numerical simulation of water solidication phenomenon for ice-on-coil thermal energy storage application, Energy Conversion and Management 44 (2003) 8592. [24] G.P. Henze, M. Krarti, M.J. Brandemuehl, Guidelines for improved performance of ice storage systems, Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 111127. [25] G. Hellstrom, S.A. Larson, Seasonal thermal energy storage the hydrock concept, Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment 60 (2001) 145156. [26] H. Ohga, K. Mikoda, Energy performance of borehole thermal energy storage systems, in: Seventh International IBPSA Conference, Brazil, 2001, pp. 10091016. [27] F. Kabus, P. Seibt, Aquifer thermal energy storage for the Berlin Reichstag building-new seat of the german parliament, in: Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2000, 2000, Japan, pp. 36113615. [28] Y.S. Yu, Charging and discharging characteristics research on the integrated system with soil cooling thermal storage and groundcoupled heat pump, Ph.D. Dissertation, Harbin, Harbin Institute of Technology, 2004.

[13] M.A. Bernier, Uncertainty in the design length calculation or vertical ground heat exchangers, ASHRAE Transactions 108 (1) (2002) 939 943. [14] H. Esen, M. Inalli, M. Esen, Numerical and experimental analysis of a horizontal ground-coupled heat pump system, Building and Environment 42 (2007) 11261134. [15] P. Cui, H.X. Yang, Z.H. Fang, Heat transfer analysis of ground heat exchangers with inclined boreholes, Applied Thermal Engineering 26 (2006) 11691175. [16] H. Esen, M. Inalli, M. Esen, Technoeconomic appraisal of a ground source heat pump system for a heating season in eastern Turkey, Energy Conversion and Management 47 (2006) 12811297. [17] H. Esen, M. Inalli, M. Esen, A techno-economic comparison of ground-coupled and air-coupled heat pump system for space cooling, Building and Environment 42 (2007) 19551965. [18] J.W. Lund, D.H. Freeston, World-wide direct uses of geothermal energy 2000, Geothermics 30 (2001) 2968. [19] Y.Z. Yu, Heat Pump Theory and Application, Mechanical Industry Press, Beijing, 1993. [20] P. Ying, Ground source heat pump in China, Modern Air Conditioning (3) (2001) 18. [21] H.T. Shin, Y.P. Lee, J. Jurng, Spherical-shaped ice particle production by spraying water in a vacuum chamber, Applied Thermal Engineering 20 (2000) 439454.