Modelling and experimental validation of an innovative coaxial helical borehole heat exchanger for a dual source heat pump system

Resumo

Low enthalpy geothermal energy is considered as an efficient and renewable alternative to conventional systems to provide heating, cooling and Domestic Hot Water (DHW) production in a sustainable way. In this context, the GEOTeCH project proposes the development of more efficient geothermal heat pump systems with a lower cost compared to the market. To this end, a new type of coaxial Borehole Heat Exchanger (BHE) with helical flow through the outer tube has been developed, which presents a higher efficiency and allows to reduce the length of the heat exchanger to be installed, as well as a Dual Source Heat Pump (DSHP) with variable speed compressor, capable of working with the ground or air as a source / sink, selecting the one that provides the best performance of the system. These components are used in the new DSHP system developed. The main objective is to develop efficient and replicable systems to provide heating, cooling and DHW in the market sector of small buildings with a smaller size of the BHE field and an increase in the efficiency. To demonstrate the applicability of these systems, three demonstration facilities have been installed in Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. In this thesis, a complete dynamic model of the system has been developed in the TRNSYS software, capable of reproducing the behavior of the different components and the system in general. This model is a useful tool for the development and analysis of different control strategies without the need to implement them in real installations, as well as analyses the behavior of the system operating under different conditions. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop detailed models of the new components developed in the project: the BHE and the DSHP; to couple them to the rest of the components of the system. For this reason, a dynamic model of the new BHE was developed, able to accurately reproduce its short-term behavior, focused on the evolution of the fluid temperature, and validated with experimental data in different operating conditions. In order to reproduce not only the dynamic behavior of the BHE, but also the long-term response of the ground and the interaction between BHEs in a field, another model was developed in TRNSYS. In this way, by coupling both models, it is possible to reproduce the short-term behavior of the BHE as well as the long-term response of the ground. On the other hand, a model of the DSHP was implemented in TRNSYS. With this model, it is possible to calculate the capacity of the heat pump depending on the operating mode in which it is operating, the frequency of the compressor and other variables and operating conditions. The model of the hybrid system in TRNSYS has been used to make an analysis of its behavior working in different climatic conditions, for which three cities have been selected in Spain and three in Europe, with different climates. So, different simulations of the system have been carried out in each city for one year. The efficiency of the system in each city has been analyzed, as well as the use of each of the sources (air / ground). On the other hand, one of the demo-sites of the GEOTeCH project, including the conditioned office building and the coupling with the fan coils, has also been modelled in TRNSYS. With this model, it is studied a new strategy to control the frequency of the compressor based on the temperature of the rooms, instead of controlling it based on the supply temperature, with the aim of reducing the consumption of the compressor when the rooms are already in comfort conditions. In addition, other optimization strategies have been analyzed with the model. Therefore, the models developed, both for the BHE and the system, are able to reproduce their operation and can be used as virtual installations, constituting useful tools to help in the design of the system and the different components, the analysis of their behavior and the development of optimization strategies.