Application of groundwater cooling scheme for London Underground network

The demand for acceptable thermal comfort conditions within the London Underground network has grown over the years. The operation of the network generates a large heat load, with high temperatures recorded in summer in train and on platforms. Different cooling methods and new sources of cooling have been proposed for cooling the network. Of the new sources of cooling proposed, groundwater cooling is the first to be tried. London Underground Limited unique characteristics of being close to the aquifer of the central London basin, rivers and also because they pump over 30 million litres of water from the network every day make it an ideal site for this technology. This paper investigates thermal issues within London Underground network and presents an overview of groundwater cooling schemes for the network.

► This paper concerns the cooling of the London Underground metropolitan rail network. ► This cooling this network is challenging due to existing small and deep tunnels and large cooling loads due to large numbers of users. ► This paper investigates thermal issues within London Underground network and presents an overview of novel groundwater cooling scheme for the network. ► This paper describes work being carried to trial a groundwater cooling system and provides data on its performance.