Informatics Publishing Limited

Rakesh D. Patel ¹, P. V. Ramana ²

Affiliations
1 CHARUSAT and Head of Mechanical Engineering, BBIT, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Ahmedabad – 380001 Gujarat, IN
2 Head of Mechanical Engineering, SVIT, Vasad, Anand – 388306, Gujarat, IN

Abstract

Objectives: In this paper, the analyses of Vertical and Horizontal Buried Tube Air conditioning system have been done. The dimensions for optimum performance from the CFD simulation are found. The comparison of the performance of vertical and horizontal Buried tube heat Exchange air conditioning system is included. Methods/Statistical Analysis: CFD simulations were carried out for optimised dimensions of Buried Tube Air conditioning system. In second part of this paper, researcher presented the installation of actual horizontal and vertical Buried Tube Air conditioning system with the help of simulation results at specific region of Gujarat, India. Horizontal buried tube heat exchanger requires more installation area with dry soil. Vertical buried tube heat exchanger is installed from the analysis of simulation results. Pipes of specific diameter and thickness were buried in bore with special type of arrangement. Findings: Horizontal buried tube heat exchanger comprises of horizontal pipe of 0.104 m inner diameter with buried Length of 25 m, made up of RCC and buried at a depth of 3 m in a flat land whereas Vertical buried tube heat exchanger with 110mm diameter and 6mm thickness were buried in the bore of 610mm diameter and 8m depth with special type of arrangement. In the end researcher represented the actual results in context of performance, comparison of simulating and actual results with suggested best the design and loop of heat exchanger for optimum performance. The results also present the dimensions of Buried tube air conditioning system for producing optimum human comfortable condition. The accuracy of this Experimental setup has been verified by comparisons of temperatures of the air and soil and the performance between simulation results with the test data. Applications/Improvements: Vertical and Horizontal Buried tube heat exchanger are used as Buried tube air conditioning system. It can be used for cooling purpose in summer and for heating purpose in winter. It is also useful to handle the green house thermal loads.

Keywords

Buried Tube Heat Exchanger Air Conditioning System, CFD Simulation, Horizontal BTHE, Heating and Cooling System, Vertical BTHE.

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Rakesh D. Patel ¹, P. V. Ramana ²

Affiliations
1 CHARUSAT, Mechanical Engineering, BBIT, Vallabh Vidyanagar – 388120, Gujarat, IN
2 Mechanical Engineering, SVIT, Vasad – 388306, Gujarat, IN

Abstract

Background: Earth energy is one of the important renewable energy sources which can be used for the cooling of room in summer and for heating in winter with a less impact on the environmental condition. Buried tube Heat Exchanger (BTHE) is a beneficial feature that reduces energy consumption in case of residential buildings. Objectives: The major objective of the research is to find out the optimum dimension of BTHE at Indian climate condition for that BTHE is used to reduce conventional air conditioning load and save energy sources for reducing the heating or cooling load of residential or any buildings. However, BTHE system can improve the indoor thermal comfort and reduce greenhouse gas emission. Core objective is to determine the exact tonnage capacity of BTHE for specific load in cooling and heating mode with respect to design and materials of BTHE. Methods/Statistical Analysis: BTHE consists of one or more tubes which are lied under the ground at buried depth for cooling in summer and for heating in winter and the air is to be supply in any building. Research work shows that there is a constant temperature at the depth of 3m from ground level by experimental setup of Temperature measuring probe throughout the year. The system has been setup at the depth of 3m from ground level and experiment has been done at the place, Vallabh Vidyanagar in India located at Latitude 22°N and Longitude 72°E by using RCC pipes. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is necessary for the comparison of experimental data and simulation data with the help of Ansys software. The research in CFD simulations were performed on various performance measurements, with different length of heat exchanger. Findings: From the above analysis we could find out dimension of Buried tube heat exchanger (BTHE), we installed an experimental setup at Vallabh Vidyanagar. It can be concluded from the comparison of the simulation results and experimental result that optimum performance of the BTHE system is at 3m depth from the ground this called buried depth and horizontal 25m buried length at specific dimension i.e. 110mm outer diameter with 6mm thickness of RCC pipes. Air velocity can be a major effective parameter for the performance of BTHE. Optimum performance of horizontal buried tube heat exchanger is obtained at 3 m/s with 25m length and 0.11 outer diameter of pipe; therefore a BTHE can be used for room cooling and heating purpose and can achieve the above objectives. Applications/Improvements: Buried tube heat exchanger is used as Buried tube air conditioning system. It can be used in summer climate condition for cooling purpose and in winter for heating the building. BTHE is also useful partially or fully to handle the building thermal loads.

Keywords

Buried Depth, Buried Tube Heat Exchanger (BTHE), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Heat Exchanger and Energy, Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD), Temperature Measuring Probe.

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