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Heat Transfer in Geothermal Energy Applications and Building Energy Systems

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "H2: Geothermal".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 November 2026 | Viewed by 554

Special Issue Editors

School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Interests: geothermal energy applications; ground source heat pump; HVAC systems; renewable energy utilization; energy-efficient building technologies

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Guest Editor
School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Interests: indoor air quality and human comfort in underground spaces; underground energy structures; ventilation and disaster prevention in underground spaces; carbon emission management for buildings and infrastructure
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Guest Editor
School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Interests: geothermal utilization; ground source heat pump; geothermal power generation; building energy conservation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The integration of geothermal energy systems and advanced building energy technologies is pivotal in addressing global energy challenges and advancing sustainable development. Geothermal energy, as a renewable and stable resource, plays a crucial role in decarbonizing heating, cooling, and power generation. Moreover, modern building energy systems are essential for improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon footprints, and enhancing occupant comfort. Recent advancements in materials, heat exchanger design, smart control strategies, and hybrid system integration have significantly improved the performance and applicability of these systems. However, challenges such as optimizing heat transfer and system operation efficiencies, improving the prediction model accuracy, and balancing economic and environmental trade-offs remain areas of active research.

This Special Issue seeks to showcase cutting-edge research and innovative solutions in the field of heat transfer applied to geothermal and building energy systems. It aims to bridge theoretical advancements with practical applications, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to address technical, environmental, and societal challenges.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Shallow/medium/deep geothermal energy applications;
  • Underground thermal energy storage systems for buildings and district heating/cooling;
  • Ground source heat pump systems;
  • Advanced geothermal system design, optimization, and hybrid configurations;
  • Geothermal energy power generation;
  • Integration of geothermal systems with renewable energy sources (e.g., solar, waste heat recovery);
  • Numerical and experimental modeling of heat transfer in subsurface and built environments;
  • System optimization and smart controls for energy management in buildings;
  • Energy consumption analysis and optimal control for HVAC systems in buildings;
  • Policy and economic analysis related to geothermal/building energy applications.

Dr. Wenxin Li
Dr. Linfeng Zhang
Dr. Wanlong Cai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • geothermal energy
  • ground source heat pump
  • thermal energy storage
  • heat transfer
  • energy consumption analysis

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

30 pages, 4711 KB  
Article
Adaptive Global Control with jDE and Grid Search for Energy-Saving Optimization of Data Center Central Air Conditioning Systems
by Weike Ding, Kexin Guo, Li Wang, Da Feng, Chong Chen and Bo Xu
Energies 2026, 19(9), 2126; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19092126 - 28 Apr 2026
Viewed by 256
Abstract
This study develops a simulation-based plant-level supervisory optimization framework for a Nanjing data center chilled-water plant by combining TRNSYS operating scenarios, fitted component-level surrogate models, and self-adaptive differential evolution (jDE). In the exported representative-case optimization, the decision variables are the cooling-tower approach temperature [...] Read more.
This study develops a simulation-based plant-level supervisory optimization framework for a Nanjing data center chilled-water plant by combining TRNSYS operating scenarios, fitted component-level surrogate models, and self-adaptive differential evolution (jDE). In the exported representative-case optimization, the decision variables are the cooling-tower approach temperature difference, cooling-water temperature difference, chilled-water temperature difference, and the common cooling-tower fan frequency, while chilled-water supply temperature is carried through as the matched scenario input and examined separately through a 14–18 °C sensitivity sweep. The system comprises three chillers, three cooling towers, three chilled-water pumps, and three cooling-water pumps. The retrained chiller support covers nominal chilled-water supply settings of 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 °C with hourly sample counts of 8759, 8759, 8760, 8759, and 8759, respectively, yielding an in-support fitted range of approximately 14.0–18.0 °C. For 48 representative operating cases selected from four seasonal days, the optimized operation reduces total power by 17.24–33.55% (mean 27.34%) and increases system COP by 20.78–50.42% (mean 38.12%), relative to matched baseline values at the same timestamps. After enforcing the fitted chiller cooling-water support floor, the largest average relative gain appears in summer rather than winter. Component-level analysis shows that the corrected savings are generated mainly by pump and cooling-tower relief, with chiller-power changes remaining secondary and season dependent. All reported results are derived from matched simulation-based baseline and optimized evaluations rather than field measurements, and all 48 representative cases remain within the fitted chiller support, with optimized cooling-water supply temperatures ranging from 20.05 to 27.75 °C. Full article
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