Track: Modeling and Simulation

Abstract

Ground Heat Exchanger (GHE) is one of the most efficient sources of renewable energy where the heat from the fluid is either taken from or given to the ground. In this study, the increase in the Heat Transfer Rate (HER) of a Horizontal Spiral coil Ground Heat Exchanger (HSGHE) with fin has been analyzed and the difference between with and without fin GHE has been evaluated with the help of numerical analysis using the ANSYS 19 software. In order to compare the thermal performances, different shapes (rectangular and circular) of fin, sizes of fin length and number of fins per turn of GHE coil were investigated with varying fin materials to evaluate an optimum outlet fluid temperature and HER for the HSGHE. The proposed model extracts heat from the working fluid and releases it to the ground, thus creating a cooling effect. Four pitch lengths of 0.03m, 0.04m, 0.05m, and 0.06m are considered. Three different fin materials: polyethylene, copper, and aluminum are used to evaluate the optimum fin material. It has been found from the analysis that the circular fin model with 0.04m pitch length of copper material to increase the HER by 14.5% than the without fin model. The fin numbers were also varied from 4 to 8 fins per turn to observe the effect of the number of fins on HER. It has been observed that if the number of fins increases from 1 to 6 per turn of spiral GHE coil, HER increases gradually. However, 7 or 8 fins per turn decreases the HER than the 6 fins per turn model. The effect of the fin length on the HER has also been investigated.