Performance Analysis of Soil to Air Heat Exchangers

The overall objective of this research is to present a complete numerical approach for the study of TCSA. For this three specific objectives were defined: i) improvement of the computational model developing the Compact Computational Model (CCM); ii) definition of the Energy Performance Indicator (EPI) dedicated to the analysis of TCSA; and iii) application of the Constructive Design method associated with the CCM and the EPI in a case study of TCSA in a Y shape. The results showed that it was possible to: (i) validate and verify the CCM which presents among other improvements the decoupled treatment between the thermal and fluid-dynamic problems the reduction of the processing time and the possibility to numerically simulate the TCSA in any region of the planet; ii) to prove the effectiveness of PPE allowing with a single indicator the performance of TCSA to be evaluated considering thermal and fluid dynamic parameters; and iii) to define the optimal TCSA configuration in Y generating a monthly electric energy economy of up to 117.72 kWh (heating) in cold periods and 74.13 kWh (cooling) in hot periods.