Long-Term Study of Thermal Interaction of Vertical Ground Heat Exchangers with Seasonal Heat Flux Variation

A numerical finite volume method in a two-dimensional meshed domain is used to evaluate the temperature response in the soil surrounding multiple borehole systems. The effect of installing ground heat exchangers in the ground and the temperature rise in the soil over the long term, for a period of 5 years, is considered. A transient periodic heat flux is assumed on the borehole wall reflecting the annual variation of heat storage/removal in the ground. In order to calculate the annual variation of heat flux on the walls of the boreholes, a building in Belleville, IL is considered and bin data are used in order to perform typical heat pump calculations.