Thermo-hydraulic analysis in geothermal energy walls

A ground source heat pump (GSHP) system provides efficient space heating and cooling and thus is regarded as a contributor to achieve net-zero emissions targets. This study focuses on an economical type of GSHP system - energy walls where earth retaining walls are equipped with pipes to act as geothermal heat exchangers in addition to being geotechnical structures. A detailed numerical investigation is performed to study the long-term heat exchange mechanism between the walls and the surrounding ground. The work highlights the significance of the existence and magnitude of groundwater flow on the temperature distribution of the ground and the thermal performance of energy walls. Compared to the case when there is no subsurface flow, the energy retaining wall can offer up to a 6 % better coefficient of performance (COP) or provide up to 1.3 times higher thermal yield for relatively slow groundwater flow velocities of 0.013 m/d. The COP can improve up to 93 % and thermal yield up to 23 times for high velocities of 2 m/d, even in extremely cooling-dominant thermal demand cases. The study also shows that the ground thermal conductivity plays a crucial role on performance when groundwater flow is minimal, however, as the convective heat transfer resulting from the groundwater flow becomes more dominant, the influence of thermal conductivity gradually diminishes. It is also found that the absorber pipe flow rate has a rather small effect on the system thermal performance, of less than a 10 % COP difference in all studied cases. This suggests that obtaining reliable hydrogeological information specifically on the groundwater flow velocity and direction are crucial for accurate predictions and optimal design for energy retaining walls and large scale GSHP installations. The insights from this study can improve the design and enhance the uptake of retaining walls for efficient heating and cooling of above/underground spaces - critical components in achieving a clean energy future.