STUDY OF GEOTHERMAL SEASONAL COOLING STORAGE SYSTEM WITH

ENERGY PILES
M.M. He, H.N. Lam
Mechanical Engineering Department
University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
Tel: 852-28592642
candyhe05@hkusua.hku.hk

1.

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a study of geothermal system with energy piles that has recently been built in China. This
system stores the cooling energy in the cold winter, which can then be used to provide sensible cooling in the hot
summer. With a proper system design, the need for an electric water chiller is completely eliminated. In order to
assess the potential of application for this system in the sub-tropical region, computer simulations are carried out to
obtain the predicted system performance. Both the results of the simulation and the actual operating data of the
system indicate that the geothermal seasonal storage system is not capable of meeting the sensible cooling load of
the building without relying on an auxiliary chiller. Further simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance
of the geothermal heat pump system, which combines energy piles together with a heat pump. The analysis shows
that this system can cater for both the sensible and the latent cooling loads. A comparison between the conventional
borehole geothermal heat pump system and the energy piles geothermal heat pump system is made with respect to
storage capacity, initial cost and energy consumption.

2.

INTRODUCTION

Geothermal (ground-source) heat pumps (GHP) are one of the fastest growing applications of renewable energy in
the world, with annual increases of 10% in about 30 countries over the past 10 years (Curtis et al., 2005). Most of
the installation of the GHP system is in central and northern Europe and the USA, where space heating is the
greatest demand. A lot of study and research have already been carried out in these countries, and a lot of projects
have already been built up. However, in the tropical and sub-tropical regions, where the cooling is the greatest
demand, both research work and practical projects are limited. This paper describes a geothermal seasonal cooling
storage system with energy piles built in south China. The system serves a plant and its office by storing the
coldness in winter and providing sensible cooling in summer. Waste heat from a nearby steam line of the plant is
used to provide heating in winter. Simulations are carried out to assess the potential of application for this system in
the sub-tropical region.

3.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The HVAC system of this project is designed according to an energy concept, which aims at minimization of energy
consumption as well as optimization of thermal comfort. A central air handling unit (AHU) in the mezzanine
delivers the fresh air to the building via a displacement ventilation system. A heating and a cooling coil in the AHU
provide sensible heating and cooling. Air dehumidification is achieved by using a liquid desiccant dehumidification
system. Heating is provided by a steam line in the form of waste heat from a co-generation process, which is located
next to the site. Low temperature radiant heating is employed, serving the manufacturing plant with a floor heating
system and the office building with a ceiling heating system. Cooling is provided by a seasonal cold storage system
using energy piles. The energy piles are structural piles which are equipped with plastic pipes as heat exchangers
(Sanner, 2003). These energy piles and other foundation structures are particularly suited to combined heat/cold
production in regions with poor geotechnical foundation conditions. With little extra cost, these structures can be
easily equipped and used as heat exchangers (Vuataz et al., 2003). Free cooling with a cooling tower during winter

time is used to cool down the ground below the building by energy piles. The chilled ground is then used to provide
sensible cooling for the air handling units and the floor slabs. All the operating data are recorded by the Energy
Management System (EMS) automatically at 15 minutes intervals.
The building has a base area of 11,000m2, which is also the area for the installation of the heat exchangers. There are
totally 410 structure piles, which are 40 meters deep, and a double U-tube of DN 25 HDPE pipe is embedded in each
pile. The double U-tube is connected in series, and all these double U-tubes are connected in parallel to the main
pipe. Pure water is circulated inside the pipes as the medium to transfer the heat. Following the recommendation by
Kavanaugh and Rafferty (1997), the water flow rate for the DN 25 HDPE pipe is chosen to be 0.315 l/s, so that the
total water flow rate of the system is 130 l/s. The design cooling capacity of piles system is 640 kW, delivering
around 340 kW cooling to the AHUs and 300 kW cooling for the floor slabs using chilled water at a temperature of
16C.

4.

COMPUTER SIMULATIONS

Simulations are carried out using TRNSYS which is a transient simulation program with a modular structure (Klein
et al., 2002). The new version of DST, the duct ground heat storage model, is chosen to simulate the energy piles
(Pahud et al., 1996). The following features are implemented in the DST version:
Several ground layers with different thermal properties can be specified within the storage region.
A ground water flow is specified for each ground layer. The heat transfer caused by forced convection in
the storage region is estimated for each ground layer.
The heat transferred by the pipe connections on ground surface can be estimated.
The soil is mainly composed of soft clay and sand, and it has the thermal conductivity of 2.16 W/mK. All the value
of parameters using in simulations are presented in Table 1.
TABLE 1
Parameters used for new DST model
Parameters
Thermal conductivity of the ground
Volumetric heat capacity of the ground
Grout thermal conductivity
Pipe thermal conductivity
Structure pile outer diameter
Structure pile inner diameter
U-tube outer diameter
U-tube inner diameter
U-tube center-to-center half distance
Darcy velocity under the ground

Values
2.16 W/mK
2200 kJ/m3K
2.78 W/mK
0.40 W/mK
50 cm
30 cm
3.34 cm
2.74 cm
12.5 cm
5x10-6 m/s

A comparison is made between the value of outlet water temperature of the heat exchanger predicted by the new
DST model and the one recorded by the EMS during the one-and-a-half-month charging period (as show in Figure
1). The inlet water temperature of the heat exchanger recorded by the EMS is used as the input to the new DST
model. As expected, the simulated results match well with the recorded data, which means that the new DST model
has a high accuracy in simulating the heat exchanger performance. But during this charging period, the temperature
drop of the soil is not very significant, only from 20C to 17C. Assuming that the charging process can last for 4
month, from November to February, as shown in Figure 2, the underground soil temperature will decrease from
20C to 13.6C. If the chilled ground at 13.6C is used to provide chilled water for the floor slabs and the AHUs, as
show in Figure 3, the water temperature will be higher than the maximum supply water temperature of 16C during
the peak load period. These results indicate that this seasonal cooling storage system cannot fully cover the sensible
cooling load of the building, and the failure might be due to the relatively mild weather in the winter season,
resulting in insufficient underground cooling storage and consequent inadequate ground temperature drop.

Figure 1: Graph of comparison of the new DST model with experimental data over 1080 hours. Tfin_d represents
the inlet water temperature of the heat exchangers recorded by EMS; Tfout_d represents the outlet water
temperature of the heat exchangers recorded by EMS; Tfout represents the outlet water temperature of the heat
exchangers calculated by the new DST model; and TmDst represents the ground temperature.

Figure 2: Graph of charging process in winter over 2880 hours, assuming a constant temperature of 6 C for the inlet
water of heat exchangers. Tfout represents the outlet water temperature of the heat exchangers; and TmDst
represents the ground temperature.

Figure 3: Graph of temperature and cooling load profiles using the chilled ground to provide the chilled water for
slabs and AHUs over a period of six months, assuming the operating schedule to be from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Tfout
represents the outlet water temperature of heat exchangers; TmDst represents the ground temperature; and load
represents the required cooling load.

5.

FURTHER ANALYSIS

Further simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of the geothermal heat pump system with energy
piles, which combines the energy piles together with a heat pump. The heat pump is used to cater for both the
sensible and the latent cooling loads for year-round operation, providing cooling in summer and heating in winter.
According to the design requirement, the total cooling load is up to 1600 kW. Since the chilled water from the heat
exchanger is supplied to the condenser of the heat pump, the outlet water temperature should not be higher than
35C during the summer time. Otherwise, this will result in a lower COP for the heat pump (Lam, 2005). In order to
demonstrate the feasibility of a sustainable long-term performance of the system, simulations are carried out over a
10-year period. Figures 4 to 7 show the loading profile, the heat exchanger outlet water temperature profile, the heat
exchanger inlet water temperature profile, and the ground temperature profile over 10 years respectively. As shown
in these figures, under the peak load of 1600 kW, the highest outlet water temperature of the heat exchanger is lower
than 35C, even after 10 years operation. Meanwhile, the ground temperature increases slowly from 20C to 24 C,
and finally reaches to the stable state, ensuring a sustainable long-time performance of the heat pump.

Figure 4: Cooling load profile over 10 years

Figure 5: Inlet water temperature profile over 10 years

Figure 6: Outlet water temperature profile over 10 years

Figure 7: Ground temperature profile over 10 years

In order to further evaluate the application potential of geothermal heat pump system with energy piles, a
comparison between this system and the conventional borehole geothermal heat pump system has been made. The
advantages of the geothermal heat pump system with energy piles are as follow:
The concrete piles have better heat transfer characteristics than conventional boreholes since the concrete
has higher thermal conductivity than sand or other common grouting materials. The capacity of energy
piles system is thus larger than that of the conventional system.
There is no need for additional land to install the heat exchangers if they are embedded in the foundation
piles. Also, there is no need for drilling of holes to install the heat exchangers. Thus, the initial cost will be
much lower for the energy piles, especially for areas where land availability is limited and drilling cost is
high, such as Japan and Hong Kong.

6.

CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS

A geothermal seasonal cold storage system with energy piles has been installed for a manufacturing plant and its
office in order to minimize the energy consumption and maximize thermal comfort. It stores the cooling energy in
winter and provides sensible cooling in summer. However, after four months of cold storage, from November 2004
to February 2005, this system still cannot cater for the required sensible cooling capacity in July 2005. Simulations
are carried out to study the failure of this system, using the TRNSYS simulation package and the new DST model.
The one-and-a-half months inlet and outlet water temperature data of the heat exchanger recorded by the EMS of
the building at 15 minutes intervals are used to verify the new DST model, and it turns out that the new DST model
has a high accuracy in simulating the heat exchanger performance. All the simulation results show that the mild
winter temperature in southern China cannot store enough cold energy during the winter time to provide the required
sensible cooling in summer. But if this system is connected to a heat pump for year-round operation, providing
heating in winter and cooling in summer, the geothermal heat pump system can cater for both the sensible cooling
load and the latent cooling load in a sustainable long-term period. A comparison between the conventional borehole
geothermal heat pump system and the geothermal heat pump system with energy piles is made with respect to
storage capacity and initial cost. It turns out that the latter system is capable of providing a larger capacity at a lower
initial cost. The detailed study of the geothermal seasonal cold storage system provides a good reference for further
detailed investigations into the application of these technologies in the sub-tropical region.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the University of Hong Kong to
this research project under account code: 10205139/13354/14500/323/01.

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