A new idea for improving the horizontal straight ground source heat exchangers performance

This paper presents a new idea for dissipating the higher amounts of thermal energy with enhanced horizontal straight ground source heat exchangers (GSHEs) comparing to the conventional GSHEs. For this purpose, the buried pipes were integrated with longitudinal galvanized bridges having the thickness and height of 2.5 mm and 117.5 cm within the ground, respectively. Several scenarios were examined in terms of the number and location of the bridges around the pipes. Attentions were attracted to three different soil types having thermal conductivities of 0.35 (soil I), 1.26 (soil II), and 2.60 (soil III) W/mK. On the other hand, different ambient air conditions on the ground were considered in order to extend the obtained results for various climates. It was found that once the buried pipes of GSHEs were equipped with galvanized bridges, the rate of heat transfer between the pipes and ground enhances significantly in comparison to the conventional GSHEs. It was demonstrated that the applied method for heat transfer enhancement was more effective for lower conductivity soils in comparison to soils with higher conductivities. Finally, maximum enhancements in the thermal energy dissipation of 90.46%, 28.84%, and 12.58% were determined for soil I, soil II, and soil III, respectively.