Assessment of impact of borehole heat exchanger design on heat extraction/rejection efficiency

Abstract

The article considers the impact of design of borehole heat exchanger (BHE) as one of the main elements of a geothermal heat pump system on its efficiency in the ground heat extraction/rejection. Four BHE modifications are considered: coaxial with metal and polyethylene outside tube as well as single and double U-shaped structures of polyethylene tubes. Numerical modeling resulted to data on the efficiency of these BHE modifications for rejection heat into ground (heat pump system in cooling mode), and ground heat extraction (heat pump system in heating mode). Numerical values were obtained and BHEs were ranked according to their efficiency in both operation modes. Besides, additional calculations were made for the most common modification - double U-shaped design - in the ground heat extraction mode for various tube sizes with various wall thicknesses.