Thermal performance analysis of multiple borehole heat exchangers in multilayer geotechnical media

Abstract Based on the finite line source (FLS) model, A heat transfer model considering both multilayer soil and multiple Borehole Heat Exchangers (BHEs) is proposed. The accuracy of the model is verified by experiments. The model is used to study the effect of thermal physical properties of multilayer geological media on the overall thermal efficiency of multiple BHEs. The dimensionless regional thermal efficiency (E) is introduced as an evaluation index of heat transfer characteristics of multiple BHEs. Under a certain geological structure, the heat transfer efficiency of multiple BHEs in homogeneous soils and multilayer soils were compared with the analytical model. The results show that the E of the multilayer multiple BHEs model is less than that of the homogeneous multiple BHEs model, with the maximum difference being 11.43% in 2,000 h. With these thermal properties and soil layer structure, the rate at which E decrease for the multilayer model is a factor of 4 higher than that for the homogeneous model. In the soil layer where the thermal interaction is the most intense, the unit Heat Transfer Rate (HTR) decreased by 25.3%. At a fixed spacing, the thermal diffusivity is the key to determining the degree of thermal interaction. Under the 4 × 4 BHEs layout, the dynamic performance loss increases by about 4% for every 1 × 10−7 m2/s increase in soil thermal diffusivity. When the multiple BHEs are in a multilayer geological media with a large difference in thermal properties (especially thermal diffusivity), a comprehensive multilayer analysis is needed to obtain the thermal efficiency of the overall multiple BHE area accurately. The multilayer multiple finite line source model can be used during the engineering design stages of a BHE field to predict the regional thermal efficiency with borehole spacing and the number of boreholes.