Impacts of Soil and Pipe Thermal Conductivity on Performance of Horizontal Pipe in a Ground-source Heat Pump

Abstract

In this paper the composition and thermal property of soil are discussed. The main factors that impact the soil thermal conductivity and several commonly-used pipe materials are studied. A model of heat exchanger with horizontal pipes of ground-source heat pump is developed. The impact of soil thermal conductivity and pipe thermal conductivity on the soil temperature field around the buried pipe, and the thermal performance of the heat exchanger are simulated. The simulation results show that with the increase of soil thermal conductivity, heat transfer quantity obviously increases, and the temperature of soil around pipe decrease under winter conditions. The temperature field varies relatively faster with thermal conductivity in the site nearer to the buried pipe. With the increase of pipe thermal conductivity, heat transfer quantity and the mean temperature of the buried pipe's outside surface all increase.