Heat transfer of a horizontal spiral heat exchanger under groundwater advection

Groundwater flows at approximately 1–3 m under the ground surface in a given region. If groundwater flow is present, the performance of a horizontal ground heat exchanger (HGHE), buried in a shallow trench, is enhanced. Nevertheless, owing to the general depth at which groundwater is present, research regarding the heat transfer of a ground heat exchanger (GHE) under conditions with groundwater flow has mainly focused on vertical GHE systems. To the authors’ knowledge, no such studies have addressed HGHEs. From a system design perspective, a prediction tool is needed to consider the groundwater flow, optimize the size of the horizontal heat exchanger, minimize the initial cost and maximize the operational efficiency. Therefore, in this study, a moving ring source model was established and solved analytically to describe the temperature response of a spiral heat exchanger with groundwater flow. In addition, experiments were carried out to study the soil temperature variation during the operation of a spiral heater with different water velocities. The validity of the proposed model was proven by the good agreement between the experimental and calculated results. The average virtual tube surface temperature variations of single ring sources in two different configurations are discussed. Furthermore, the average virtual tube surface temperatures of multiple ring sources extending from single arrangements were computed and approximation algorithms were introduced to reduce the calculation time. The approximation approach has been proven to run thousands of times faster than the initial method, and the calculation results are in 97% agreement with those of the initial method. In summary, this study provides a useful tool for the design of spiral heat exchangers.