Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Science (MS)
Major/Program
Mechanical Engineering
First Advisor's Name
Dr. Cheng-Xian Lin
First Advisor's Committee Title
committee chair
Second Advisor's Name
Dr. Yiding Cao
Second Advisor's Committee Title
committee member
Third Advisor's Name
Dr. Lu Zhang
Third Advisor's Committee Title
committee member
Keywords
Borehole Heat Exchanger, conjugate heat transfer, computational power, mesh sizes, turbulence models, polyhedral, hexahedral, refinement, residence time, trapezoidal
Date of Defense
11-13-2020
Abstract
The primary purpose of this thesis was to develop a design for improving the efficiency of the vertical type single u-tube borehole heat exchanger. A thorough literature review of the various existing analytical and numerical models of the borehole heat exchanger (BHEs) was performed and numerical modeling of the BHE was conducted to solve the conjugate heat transfer problem in the BHE in 3D using ANSYS Fluent 2019 R1. A comparison between the results obtained using various mesh sizes, types, different turbulence models showed the independence of the parameters on the numerical simulation results.
From the numerical simulation, it was evident that the outlet temperature of the fluid was dependent upon the residence time of the fluid inside the pipe. Keeping this in mind, a design change incorporating the addition of trapezoidal finned casing between the grout and the domain has been proposed to enhance the efficiency of the BHE. On performing numerical simulations, it was seen that the addition of fins improved the heat transfer characteristics of the BHE, thus proving the hypothesis to be true.
Identifier
FIDC009237
Recommended Citation
Khan, Talha, "Numerical Modeling and Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis of Single U-Tube Vertical Borehole Heat Exchangers" (2020). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4550.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4550
Included in
Energy Systems Commons, Heat Transfer, Combustion Commons, Manufacturing Commons, Other Mechanical Engineering Commons
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