The Potential of Earth-air Heat Exchangers for Low Energy Cooling of Buildings in South Algeria

A one-dimensional steady numerical model is proposed to estimate the performance of earth-to-air heat exchangers, installed at different depth, used for building cooling/heating. Two parameters are considered to evaluate the performance of the system (Reynolds number and the form factor). With appropriate simplifications; Numerical simulation treatment is proposed to predict the temperature fields of the fluids in the pipe and the soil in the proximity of the buried pipe, taking into account meteorological data of south Algeria. Moreover, the agreement with some experimental data available in the literature is very satisfactory.