helenwanghh / geothermal-feasibility-study

Geothermal Feasibility Study

Geothermal Project README

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Objective

The objective is to create computational models to study the feasibility and energy cost of using geothermal to supplement the cooling thermal management of buildings on campus (including ice rink)

Framework

• choose to use the type of roof of their building as well as the footprint of the roof.
• The weather data is limited to Burlington Jan 1, 2021 to Dec 31, 2021 (data provided)
• Goals:

1. Identify the cooling demand for a fixed ceiling temperature (T = 20 C)
2. Derive the necessary geothermal system to deliver the required cooling demand
3. The energy cost to move fluid within the geothermal loop
4. Extend the analysis to a more realistic room heat transfer model (code provided) and compare the overall cooling demand for a room of height 5m compared to your initial calculation
5. Discuss which model does a better job at predicting heat load and why. Does it change your design of the geothermal heat exchanger?

Assumptions

• Ground is assumed to be at 10C at 2m deep
• Soil can be sand or clay
• For the heat exchange between soil and piping study two possibilities: o Option 1: The outside surface is at soil temperature in the heat exchanger o Option 2: Introduce a parametric distance at which the soil is at 10C from the surface of the pipe. Study the effect of that distance on the pipe length
• Recommended material for piping is HDPE
• The heat exchanger is assumed to require cool temperature of 12C and return temperature of 22C. Efficacy is estimated at 0.75
• When using the model building, use an indoor temperature of 20C

Deliverables

• Cooling demand for a model building of your choice and Recommendation for geothermal heat exchanger dimensions
• Refinement of model building heat load simulation
• Final report due as group, equations for the room (individual submission)