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ENCIT 2022
19th Brazilian Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering
VALIDATION AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF AN EARTH-AIR HEAT EXCHANGER (EAHE) IN STEADY-STATE
Submission Author:
Douglas Pereira Vasconcellos , PR
Co-Authors:
Douglas Pereira Vasconcellos, Carlos Henrique Diedrich, Gerson Henrique dos Santos, Nathan Mendes, Thiago Antonini Alves, Victor Vaurek Dimbarre
Presenter: Victor Vaurek Dimbarre
doi://10.26678/ABCM.ENCIT2022.CIT22-0499
Abstract
The increasing demand for electricity is faced with the limitation of existing natural resources, with this, it becomes inevitable that the social sectors are concerned with developing their activities in a more efficient and sustainable way, with less impact on the environment. In addition, considering human thermal comfort inside buildings, linked to energy savings, studies have been realized, as well as less degrading practices or low energy consumption being adopted more frequently, to control the temperature in these environments with efficiency energetic. In order to reduce energy consumption in buildings, due to the use of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, the use of the ground as a source of energy is analyzed. Due to its high thermal capacity, the soil acts as a thermal reservoir, heating or cooling the air inside the buildings, depending on the weather conditions applied. The thermal performance of an Earth-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) is analyzed experimentally, the EAHE was installed at (Federal Technological University of Paraná -UTFPR, Ponta Grossa-PR) at a depth of 1,5 m, with 8 steps using 100 mm diameter white PVC tubes for air passage, and the EAHE has 44,5 m long. Furthermore, the thermal performance of an EAHE is numerically investigated using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool. For this, a CFD model has been developed in Ansys-Fluent software that is validated with experimental data. The CFD analysis has been performed using a three-dimensional numerical model in steady-state, and the turbulence has been modeled using k-ε turbulence model. Further, the different inlet velocities were analyzed in the thermal performance of an EAHE, and the different properties of the soil will be verified too.
Keywords
Earth-Air Heat Exchangers (EAHE), passive cooling, Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD
