A Study on the Measurement of Thermal conductivity of Vertical Borehole heat Exchanger

수직형 지중열교환기 열전도도 측정기술에 관한 연구

The heat exchange between the Borehole Heat Exchanger(BHE) and the surrounding ground depends directly on ground thermal conductivity k at the certain site. The k is thus a key parameter in designing BHE and coupled geothermal heat pump systems. Currently, although a thermal hydraulic response test(TRT) is mostly used in practice, the thermal hydraulic TRT needs additional power and is generally time-consuming. A new, simple wireless P/T probe for a hi-speed k determination was introduced in this paper. This technique using a wireless P/T probe is less time-consuming and requires no external source of energy for measurement and predicts local thermal properties by measuring soil temperatures along the depth. Measured temperature data along the depth was analyzed. In order to verify the new technique for the determination of ground thermal conductivity, ground thermal conductivity k that calculated from the measured temperature data using a wireless P/T probe was compared with one obtained from conventional hydraulic TRT. When comparing the average k of two methods, the relative error was approximately 10%. As a result, the electronic TRT can replace the conventional hydraulic TRT method after carrying out the additional research on a lot of sites.