IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i18p5791-d635071.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluation of Subsurface Heat Capacity through Oscillatory Thermal Response Tests

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolò Giordano

    (Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 490 Rue de la Couronne, Québec, QC G1K 9A9, Canada)

  • Louis Lamarche

    (École de Technologie Supérieure, Département de Génie Mécanique, Montréal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada)

  • Jasmin Raymond

    (Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 490 Rue de la Couronne, Québec, QC G1K 9A9, Canada)

Abstract

Two methods are currently available to estimate in a relatively short time span the subsurface heat capacity: (1) laboratory analysis of rock/soil samples; (2) measure the heat diffusion with temperature sensors in an observation well. Since the first may not be representative of in-situ conditions, and the second imply economical and logistical issues, a third option might be possible by means of so-called oscillatory thermal response tests (OTRT). The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an OTRT as a tool to infer the subsurface heat capacity without the need of an observation well. To achieve this goal, an OTRT was carried out in a borehole heat exchanger (BHE). The total duration of injection was 6 days, with oscillation period of 12 h and amplitude of 10 W m −1 . The results of the proposed methodology were compared 3-D numerical simulations and to a TRT with a constant heat injection rate with temperature response monitored from a nearby observation well. Results show that the OTRT succeeded to infer the expected subsurface heat capacity, but uncertainty is about 15% and the radial depth of penetration is only 12 cm. The parameters having most impact on the results are the subsurface thermal conductivity and the borehole thermal resistance. The OTRT performed and analyzed in this study also allowed to evaluate the thermal conductivity with similar accuracy compared to conventional TRTs (3%). On the other hand, it returned borehole thermal resistance with high uncertainty (15%), in particular due to the duration of the test. The final range of heat capacity is wide, highlighting challenges to currently use OTRT in the scope of ground-coupled heat pump system design. OTRT appears a promising tool to evaluate the heat capacity, but more field testing and mathematical interpretation of the sinusoidal response is needed to better isolate the subsurface from the BHE contribution and reduce the uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolò Giordano & Louis Lamarche & Jasmin Raymond, 2021. "Evaluation of Subsurface Heat Capacity through Oscillatory Thermal Response Tests," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-26, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:18:p:5791-:d:635071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5791/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5791/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Spitler, Jeffrey D. & Gehlin, Signhild E.A., 2015. "Thermal response testing for ground source heat pump systems—An historical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1125-1137.
    2. Giordano, Nicolò & Raymond, Jasmin, 2019. "Alternative and sustainable heat production for drinking water needs in a subarctic climate (Nunavik, Canada): Borehole thermal energy storage to reduce fossil fuel dependency in off-grid communities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Raymond, Jasmin & Lamarche, Louis & Malo, Michel, 2015. "Field demonstration of a first thermal response test with a low power source," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 30-39.
    4. Zhang, Bo & Gu, Kai & Shi, Bin & Liu, Chun & Bayer, Peter & Wei, Guangqing & Gong, Xülong & Yang, Lei, 2020. "Actively heated fiber optics based thermal response test: A field demonstration," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    5. Yang, H. & Cui, P. & Fang, Z., 2010. "Vertical-borehole ground-coupled heat pumps: A review of models and systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 16-27, January.
    6. Raymond, J. & Lamarche, L., 2013. "Simulation of thermal response tests in a layered subsurface," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 293-301.
    7. Maria Isabel Vélez Márquez & Jasmin Raymond & Daniela Blessent & Mikael Philippe & Nataline Simon & Olivier Bour & Louis Lamarche, 2018. "Distributed Thermal Response Tests Using a Heating Cable and Fiber Optic Temperature Sensing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, November.
    8. Witte, Henk J.L., 2013. "Error analysis of thermal response tests," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 302-311.
    9. Marcotte, D. & Pasquier, P., 2008. "On the estimation of thermal resistance in borehole thermal conductivity test," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2407-2415.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tangnur Amanzholov & Abzal Seitov & Abdurashid Aliuly & Yelnar Yerdesh & Mohanraj Murugesan & Olivier Botella & Michel Feidt & Hua Sheng Wang & Yerzhan Belyayev & Amankeldy Toleukhanov, 2022. "Thermal Response Measurement and Performance Evaluation of Borehole Heat Exchangers: A Case Study in Kazakhstan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-31, November.
    2. Lamarche, Louis & Raymond, Jasmin & Giordano, Nicolò, 2024. "Oscillatory thermal response tests to estimate the ground thermal diffusivity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Soldo, Vladimir & Boban, Luka & Borović, Staša, 2016. "Vertical distribution of shallow ground thermal properties in different geological settings in Croatia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1202-1212.
    2. BniLam, Noori & Al-Khoury, Rafid, 2020. "Parameter identification algorithm for ground source heat pump systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    3. Maria Isabel Vélez Márquez & Jasmin Raymond & Daniela Blessent & Mikael Philippe & Nataline Simon & Olivier Bour & Louis Lamarche, 2018. "Distributed Thermal Response Tests Using a Heating Cable and Fiber Optic Temperature Sensing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, November.
    4. Ana Vieira & Maria Alberdi-Pagola & Paul Christodoulides & Saqib Javed & Fleur Loveridge & Frederic Nguyen & Francesco Cecinato & João Maranha & Georgios Florides & Iulia Prodan & Gust Van Lysebetten , 2017. "Characterisation of Ground Thermal and Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour for Shallow Geothermal Energy Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-51, December.
    5. Wilke, Sascha & Menberg, Kathrin & Steger, Hagen & Blum, Philipp, 2020. "Advanced thermal response tests: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    6. Jia, Jie & Lee, W.L. & Cheng, Yuanda, 2019. "Field demonstration of a first constant-temperature thermal response test with both heat injection and extraction for ground source heat pump systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 249(C), pages 79-86.
    7. Pasquier, Philippe, 2018. "Interpretation of the first hours of a thermal response test using the time derivative of the temperature," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 56-75.
    8. Zhang, Changxing & Guo, Zhanjun & Liu, Yufeng & Cong, Xiaochun & Peng, Donggen, 2014. "A review on thermal response test of ground-coupled heat pump systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 851-867.
    9. Zhang, Bo & Gu, Kai & Shi, Bin & Liu, Chun & Bayer, Peter & Wei, Guangqing & Gong, Xülong & Yang, Lei, 2020. "Actively heated fiber optics based thermal response test: A field demonstration," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    10. Raymond, Jasmin & Lamarche, Louis & Malo, Michel, 2015. "Field demonstration of a first thermal response test with a low power source," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 30-39.
    11. Yoshitaka Sakata & Takao Katsura & Ahmed A. Serageldin & Katsunori Nagano & Motoaki Ooe, 2021. "Evaluating Variability of Ground Thermal Conductivity within a Steep Site by History Matching Underground Distributed Temperatures from Thermal Response Tests," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, March.
    12. Zhang, Xueping & Han, Zongwei & Ji, Qiang & Zhang, Hongzhi & Li, Xiuming, 2021. "Thermal response tests for the identification of soil thermal parameters: A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 1123-1135.
    13. Javed, Saqib & Spitler, Jeffrey, 2017. "Accuracy of borehole thermal resistance calculation methods for grouted single U-tube ground heat exchangers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 790-806.
    14. Alessandro Franco & Paolo Conti, 2020. "Clearing a Path for Ground Heat Exchange Systems: A Review on Thermal Response Test (TRT) Methods and a Geotechnical Routine Test for Estimating Soil Thermal Properties," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, June.
    15. Aranzabal, Nordin & Martos, Julio & Steger, Hagen & Blum, Philipp & Soret, Jesús, 2019. "Temperature measurements along a vertical borehole heat exchanger: A method comparison," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1247-1258.
    16. Louis Lamarche & Jasmin Raymond & Claude Hugo Koubikana Pambou, 2017. "Evaluation of the Internal and Borehole Resistances during Thermal Response Tests and Impact on Ground Heat Exchanger Design," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    17. Pasquier, Philippe & Marcotte, Denis, 2020. "Robust identification of volumetric heat capacity and analysis of thermal response tests by Bayesian inference with correlated residuals," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    18. Hakala, Petri & Vallin, Sami & Arola, Teppo & Martinkauppi, Ilkka, 2022. "Novel use of the enhanced thermal response test in crystalline bedrock," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 467-482.
    19. Extremera-Jiménez, Alejandro J. & Gutiérrez-Montes, Cándido & Casanova-Peláez, Pedro J. & Cruz-Peragón, Fernando, 2022. "Vertical ground heat exchanger parameter characterization through a compound design of experiments," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 1361-1371.
    20. Franco, A. & Moffat, R. & Toledo, M. & Herrera, P., 2016. "Numerical sensitivity analysis of thermal response tests (TRT) in energy piles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 985-992.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:18:p:5791-:d:635071. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.