Search Results (6)

Among the various approaches to agriculture, urban greenhouse farming has gained attention for its ability to address food security and disruptions to global food supply chains. However, the increasing impact of climate change and global warming necessitates sustainable methods for heating and cooling these greenhouses. In this study, we focused on the potential of slinky-coil horizontal ground heat exchangers (HGHEs) to meet the energy demands of urban greenhouses, assuming they are installed beneath the greenhouse to optimize space utilization. Climate data, an energy consumption profile for a greenhouse being designed in La Pocatière (Québec, Canada) and in-situ ground thermal properties assessments were used to build numerical models using FEFLOW and to evaluate the performance of the HGHEs simulated. Four scenarios were simulated and compared to a base case, considering the greenhouse’s maintenance of a constant temperature above an HGHE limited to the greenhouse’s dimensions. Our findings reveal that a minimum of 7.1% and 26.5% of the total heating and cooling loads of a small greenhouse (133 m² area) can be covered by HGHEs installed at a 1.5 m depth when there is no greenhouse above. When installed under a greenhouse with a constant inside temperature of 21 °C, the coverage for heating loads increases to 22.8%, while cooling loads decrease to 24.2%. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the constant temperature in the greenhouse reduces the system’s reliance on surface temperature fluctuations for both heating and cooling, albeit with reduced efficiency for cooling. Full article

In order to find the temperature field in the ground with a heat exchanger, it is necessary to determine temperature responses of the ground caused by heat sources and the influence of the environment. To determine the latter, a new model of heat transfer in the ground under natural conditions was developed. The heat flux of the evaporation of moisture from the ground was described by the relationship taking into account the annual amount of rainfall. The analytical solution for the equations of this model is presented. Under the conditions for which the calculations were performed, the following data were obtained: the average ground surface temperature T_sm = 10.67 °C, the ground surface temperature amplitude A_s = 13.88 K, and the phase angle P_s = 0.202 rad. This method makes it possible to easily determine the undisturbed ground temperature at any depth and at any time. This solution was used to find the temperature field in the ground with an installed slinky-coil heat exchanger that consisted of 63 coils. The results of calculations according to the presented model were compared with the results of measurements from the literature. The 3D model for the ground with an installed heat exchanger enables the analysis of the influence of miscellaneous parameters of the process of extracting or supplying heat from/to the ground on its temperature field. Full article

The slinky ground heat exchanger (GHE) is the most widely utilized horizontal-type GHE, however, this GHE has a low curvature coil. The GHE has poor thermal mixing, especially at a low flowrate. At this flowrate, the coil heat exchanger has similar performance to a straight tube heat exchanger. Discrete double-inclined ribs (DDIR) are well known for their good thermal mixing by generating a vortex in straight tubes. In this paper, a numerical analysis of thermal performance for the plain coil and DDIR coil is discussed. It was found that the thermal performance of the DDIR coil was slightly higher than that of the plain coil in laminar flow. In turbulent flow, the DDIR coil was superior to the plain coil only in the first 149-min operation. The first 60-min analysis shows that in laminar flow, the average heat transfer rate in the plain coil is 59 W/m and in the DDIR coil is 60.1 W/m. In turbulent flow, the average heat transfer rate is 62 W/m, and the plain coil is 62.3 W/m. The copper DDIR coil material produced a better heat transfer rate than that of the composite and High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE). Sandy clay has the highest heat transfer rate. The influence of ground thermal conductivity on the performance of the GHE is more dominant than convection in the DDIR coil. Full article

This paper presents an experimental evaluation of a closed loop lake water heat pump (LWHPs) system based on the slinky coiled configuration. Initially, a mathematical model is developed in the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) for the heat pump system and the submerged coils in a lake. System performance is determined for the submerged slinky copper coils under the various operating conditions. Afterwards, parametric analysis is performed considering different influencing parameters, such as the lake water temperature, ambient temperature, and mass flow rate of the circulating fluid at constant lake depth of 4 ft. The experimental setup is developed for 3.51 kW cooling capacity after cooling load calculation for a small room. In the current study, slinky copper coils are used to exchange heat with lake water. The experimental setup is installed in Taxila, Pakistan, and the system’s performance is analyzed during selected days. After experimentation based on hourly and daily operation characteristics, it is observed that the lake water temperature has significant influence on the heat transfer rate between slinky coil and lake water. While the lake water temperature in summer decreases and increases in winter with the depth. The resulted daily average coefficient of performance (COP) of the system is within the range of 3.24–3.46 during the selected days of cooling season. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the LWHP systems can be considered a viable solution for Pakistan having a well-established canal system. Full article

This paper highlights the thermal performance of reclined (parallel to ground surface) and standing (perpendicular to ground surface) slinky horizontal ground heat exchangers (HGHEs) with different water mass flow rates in the heating mode of continuous and intermittent operations. A copper tube with an outer surface protected with low-density polyethylene was selected as the tube material of the ground heat exchanger. Effects on ground temperature around the reclined slinky HGHE due to heat extraction and the effect of variation of ground temperatures on reclined HGHE performance are discussed. A higher heat exchange rate was experienced in standing HGHE than in reclined HGHE. The standing HGHE was affected by deeper ground temperature and also a greater amount of backfilled sand in standing HGHE (4.20 m³) than reclined HGHE (1.58 m³), which has higher thermal conductivity than site soil. For mass flow rate of 1 L/min with inlet water temperature 7 °C, the 4-day average heat extraction rates increased 45.3% and 127.3%, respectively, when the initial average ground temperatures at 1.5 m depth around reclined HGHE increased from 10.4 °C to 11.7 °C and 10.4 °C to 13.7 °C. In the case of intermittent operation, which boosted the thermal performance, a short time interval of intermittent operation is better than a long time interval of intermittent operation. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of power consumption by the circulating pump, the intermittent operation is more efficient than continuous operation. Full article

A model test system of horizontal slinky coil ground heat exchanger (HSCGHE) was established according to the similarity theory. A 2-D mathematical model of HSCGHE was built and experimentally validated. Experimental and numerical investigations of effects of different parameters on the thermal behavior of HSCGHE were undertaken. The results show that the heat release rate of the slinky coil and soil temperature around it increase as the inlet fluid temperature of coil increases. The soil temperature operated in intermittent mode can get a recovery, and thus the heat release rate of the coil can be improved effectively. For a given condition, reducing the coil central interval distance can increase the heat release rate of the HSCGHE, but also results in the decrease of the heat release rate per unit length of the coil. Therefore, the coil central interval distance cannot be decreased without limit. At the same time, the thermal performance of HSCGHE is related to the ground surface wind velocity. The heat release rate in the sandstone is the largest, followed by sand, the lowest for clay. Additionally, with the increase of buried depth of coil, the heat release rate increases, but the increase degree gradually becomes small. Thus, the buried depth cannot be too deep and should be determined by thermal performance, excavation cost and safety requirements. Full article