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Energy
Energy Procedia
Procedia 00
00 (2017)
(2017) 000–000
000–000

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Energy
EnergyProcedia
Procedia119 (2017) 000–000
00 (2017) 783–791
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

International Conference on Technologies and Materials for Renewable Energy, Environment and
Sustainability, TMREES17, 21-24 April 2017, Beirut Lebanon

UsingThe
Geothermal Energy
15th International for cooling
Symposium on District -Heating
Parametric study
and Cooling

Assessing
Amal Herez aa
the Khaled
, Mahmoud feasibility of using the heat demand-outdoor
a,b, Rabih Murr aa, Ahmad Haddad aa, Hisham Elhage aa and
a,b

Mohamad Ramadan a,c,* a,c,*

temperature function for a long-term district heat demand forecast
a School of Engineering, Lebanese International University LIU, PO Box 146404 Beirut, Lebanon.
a
School of Engineering, Lebanese International University LIU, PO Box 146404 Beirut, Lebanon.
bb
Univ
Univ Paris
a,b,cDiderot,
Diderot, Sorbonne
Sorbonnea Paris
Paris Cité,
Cité, Interdisciplinary Energy
Energy Research Institute
Institute (PIERI),
(PIERI),c Paris,
Paris, France
I. Andrić Paris
cc *, A. Pina , P. Ferrão , J. Fournier ., B. Lacarrière , O. Le Correc
Associate
Associate member
member at
at FCLAB,
FCLAB, CNRS,
CNRS, Univ.
a
Interdisciplinary
Univ. Bourgogne
b
Research
Bourgogne Franche-Comte
Franche-Comte ,, Belfort
Belfort cedex,
cedex, France.
France.
France

a
IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research - Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
b
Abstract Veolia Recherche & Innovation, 291 Avenue Dreyfous Daniel, 78520 Limay, France
Abstract c
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France
Geothermal
Geothermal heat heat pump
pump is is an
an efficient
efficient application
application derived
derived from
from geothermal
geothermal energy.
energy. It It exploits
exploits earth
earth asas aa heat
heat provenance
provenance to to
extract
extract heat
heat from
from itit and
and heat
heat space
space inin winter,
winter, or
or it
it uses
uses earth
earth as
as heat
heat sink
sink to
to transform
transform heatheat to
to it
it and
and cool
cool the
the space
space during
during summer.
summer.
This
This paper
paper presents
Abstract presents aa parametric
parametric studystudy toto investigate
investigate thethe effects
effects of
of inlet
inlet and
and outlet
outlet water
water temperatures
temperatures and and ground
ground temperature
temperature on on
the
the length of the pipe of a horizontal geothermal heat pump system during cooling process. The type of the considered pipe
length of the pipe of a horizontal geothermal heat pump system during cooling process. The type of the considered pipe is
is
Poliplex
District --heating
Poliplex PE100
PE100 Series
Series
networks11 –– are
polyethylene
commonlyof
polyethylene 16
16 mm
mm inner
ofaddressed inner diameter
diameter
in the and
and as
literature 20 mm
20 one
mm ofouter
thediameter.
outer diameter. The
The obtained
most effective obtained
solutionsresults
results revealed
revealed that
for decreasing that
the
at 30
30 °C
°C water
atgreenhousewater inlet
inlet
gas temperature,
temperature,
emissions from the27
27 °C
°C water outlet
outlet temperature
water sector.
building temperature
These systems and 21
21 °C
andrequire °C ground
ground temperature
temperature
high investments the
the length
which length of
of pipe needed
pipethrough
are returned is
is 716
needed the 716
heat
m.
m. Also,
sales. the
the toresults
Also,Due results showed that
that higher
showed climate
the changed higher water
water inlet
conditions and temperature
inlet temperature and
and ground
building renovation ground temperature
temperature
policies, increases
increases
heat demand the required
the future
in the required pipe length;
pipe decrease,
could length;
however,
however,
prolonging higher
higher water
water outlet temperature
outletreturn
the investment period. decreases
temperature decreases thethe needed
needed length
length ofof the
the pipe.
pipe.
©
© 2017
2017
The The
The
main Authors.
Authors.
scope Published
Published
of this paper isby by
by Elsevier
Elsevier
toElsevier Ltd.
Ltd.
assess the feasibility of using the heat demand – outdoor temperature function for heat demand
© 2017 The
Peer-review Authors.
under Published
responsibility of the Ltd.
Euro-Mediterranean Institute for Sustainable Development (EUMISD).
Peer-review
forecast. The
Peer-review under
under responsibility
district of Alvalade,
responsibility of the
of thelocated
Euro-Mediterranean Institute for
in Lisbon (Portugal),
Euro-Mediterranean Institute for Sustainable
was Sustainable Development
used as a Development
case study. The (EUMISD).
district is consisted of 665
(EUMISD).
buildings that vary in both construction period and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
Keywords: geothermal
geothermal energy,
energy, horizontal geothermal heat pump,
pump, length
length of the
the pipe, water inlet temperature, water
water outlet temperature, ground
Keywords:
renovation scenarios werehorizontal
developed geothermal heat
(shallow, intermediate, of
deep). pipe,
To water inlet the
estimate temperature,
error, obtained outlet
heattemperature, ground were
demand values
temperature.
temperature.
compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
(the error in annual
* Corresponding
Corresponding author.demand
Tel.; was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
* author. Tel.;
scenarios,
E-mail address: the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
address: mohamad.ramadan@liu.edu.lb
mohamad.ramadan@liu.edu.lb
E-mail
The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and
renovation scenarios considered). On the other hand, function intercept increased for 7.8-12.7% per decade (depending on the
1.coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and
Introduction
1.improve
Introduction
the accuracy of heat demand estimations.
The
© The
permanent
2017permanent
aggravation
The Authors.aggravation
of
Published byof
greenhouse
greenhouse
Elsevier
effect and the rise in the price of conventional sources of energy
Ltd. effect and the rise in the price of conventional sources of energy
promoted
promoted scientists
scientists
Peer-review to search for
to search offor
under responsibility solutions
thesolutions such
such as
as heat
Scientific Committeeheat recovery
recovery
of The [1-7]
[1-7] and renewable
andSymposium
15th International on energy
renewable energy sources [8-13].
sourcesand
District Heating [8-13].
Geothermal
Geothermal
Cooling. energy is distinguished as a clean, free and environmentally friendly renewable energy.
energy is distinguished as a clean, free and environmentally friendly renewable energy. Geothermal Geothermal

Keywords: Heat demand; Forecast; Climate change

1876-6102 ©
1876-6102 © 2017
2017 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by
by Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.
Ltd.
Peer-review
Peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of
of the
the Euro-Mediterranean
Euro-Mediterranean Institute
Institute for
for Sustainable
Sustainable Development
Development (EUMISD).
(EUMISD).

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Euro-Mediterranean Institute for Sustainable Development (EUMISD).
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.07.111
784 Amal Herez et al. / Energy Procedia 119 (2017) 783–791
2 A. Herez et al/ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

energy [14-18] is a ground energy source generated from the difference in temperature gradient between ambient
and ground temperatures. Geothermal heat pump system utilizes heat working fluid to circulate in a closed loop,
where it exploits soil as thermal source or sink for space heating or cooling. Heat pump, heat exchanger and
distribution system are the main components of geothermal heat pump system.
Horizontal geothermal heat pump [19-22] is one of the most important types of geothermal heat pump. It is
mostly efficient for residential installations due to its cost. Besides, it is commonly used when sufficient area is
available. Such system requires trenches to be dug where up to six pipes are buried horizontally in each trench. Each
trench is far ten to fifteen feet from the other trench. The pipes are connected in parallel and separated by minimum
distance equal to one foot.
In designing a horizontal geothermal heat pump it is important to estimate the required length of the pipes which
is affected by several parameters. From this point, the present work deal with a parametric study which discusses the
influence of hot water inlet temperature, ground temperature and water outlet temperature (leaving the ground), in
the cooling mode.

Nomenclature

A cross section area of the pipe (m2)

Cp specific heat of water (Kg/s)
D inner diameter of the pipe (m)
h convective heat transfer coefficient (w/m2.K)
K thermal conductivity of polyethylene (0.5 w/m.K)
L length of the pipe (m)
m mass flow rate of water (Kg/s)
Nu Nusselt number
Pr Prandtl number (5.43 at temperature 30°C)
r radius (m)
R resistance (K/w)
Re Reynolds number
S conduction shape factor
Z depth of the pipe underground (m)
ΔT temperature difference (°C)
ΔTlog logarithmic mean temperature difference
μ dynamic viscosity of water (0.76×10-3 Kg/m.s)
Ṽ volumetric flow rate of water (m3/s)
 density of water (995.7 Kg/m3)

Subscripts
cond,p conduction in the pipe
cond,s conduction in the soil
conv,w convection of water
i inner
o outer
t total

2. Thermal modeling

The thermal model of the pipes in geothermal heat pump is based on calculation of the rate of heat exchange
which is obtained from the formula of equation (1).
 A. Herez
AmaletHerez
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et al. /Procedia 00 (2017)119
Energy Procedia 000–000
(2017) 783–791 3
785

Q  m  C p  T (1)

where “ΔT” is the temperature difference between inlet and outlet water temperature (Ti-To) and “ m
 ”is the mass
flow rate of water which can be calculated using the formula of equation (2).

~ (2)
m   V

~
where “ V ” is the volumetric flow rate, it is equal to 8 gpm.

 ) can be calculated using the formula of equation (3):

Also, the rate of heat transfer ( Q

Tlog (3)
Q 
Rt

Using equation (4) “ΔTlog” is obtained. However, “Rt” is calculated from equation (5) where it is the sum of water
convective resistance, pipe conductive resistance and soil conductive resistance.

Tlog 
T  T  T  T 
o g i g
(4)

 T T 
ln o g 
 T T 
 i g 

Rt  Rconv ,w  Rcond , p  Rcond ,s (5)

1 (6)
Rconv,w 
h  2    ri  L 

“Rconv,w” is calculated usinf the formula of equation (6), where the convective heat transfer coefficient “h” is
calculated using formulas of equations (7)-(10).

~ (7)
V
v
A
4
786 A. Herez
AmaletHerez
al/ Energy
et al. /Procedia 00 (2017)119
Energy Procedia 000–000
(2017) 783–791

  v. D (8)
Re 


Nu  0.023  Re0.8  Prn (9)

Where “Nu” is Nusselt number which is calculated from Dittus and Boelter formula for turbulent flow in smooth
pipe, Prandtl number “Pr” is equal to 5.43 at 30oC, and n = 0.3 for case of cooling fluid.

Nu  k (10)
h
D

The conductive resistance of the pipe “Rcond,p” is calculated from equation (11). Besides, the conductive resistance
of the ground “Rcond,s” is calculated from the conductive factor (S) using formulas of equation (12) and (13).

ln ( ro / ri )
Rcond , p 
2 k L (11)

1 (12)
Rcond,s 
S

2   L (13)
S
 8Z 
ln 
 D 

where “Z” is the depth of the pipe underground, in this study it is taken 1m.

3. Results and discussion

The thermal model developed in the previous section is applied on excel sheet to calculate the length of the pipe
as function of inlet temperature, ground temperature and outlet temperature during cooling mode. Poliplex - PE100
Series 1 - polyethylene pipes are used in this study where its inner and outer diameters are 16 mm and 20 mm
respectively. Several cases where taken into consideration where in each case one of the affecting parameters is
varied and the others are fixed. Tables 1, 2 and 3 illustrate the conditions and the results obtained (pipe length) for
case 1, 2 and 3 respectively. In the first case, To and Tg are fixed at 27°C and 21°C respectively and Ti is varied
between 29 °C and 36 °C. While in the second case Ti and Tg are fixed at 30°C and 21°C respectively and To ranges
between 22 °C and 28°C. in case 3, To and Ti are fixed at 27°C and 30°C respectively and Tg is from 13 °C to 26 °C.
 A. Herez et al/ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 5

Amal Herez et al. / Energy Procedia 119 (2017) 783–791 787

Table 1. Values of the conditions and obtained length in case 1.

To = 27 oC
Tg = 21 oC
Ti (oC) L (m)
29 508.26
30 716.35
31 902.49
32 1070.88
33 1224.61
34 1366.03
35 1496.95
36 1618.85

Table 2. Values of the conditions and obtained length in case 2.

Ti = 30 oC
Tg = 21 oC
To (oC) L (m)
22 3881.937
23 2657.323
24 1940.969
25 1432.708
26 1038.47
27 716.3538
28 444.0087
 6 A. Herez et al/ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

788 Amal Herez et al. / Energy Procedia 119 (2017) 783–791

Table 3. Values of the conditions and obtained length in case.

Ti = 30 oC
To = 27 oC
Tg (oC) L (m)
13 343.0243
14 366.846
15 394.2379
16 426.0721
17 463.531
18 508.2611
19 562.6268
20 630.154
21 716.3538
22 830.377
23 988.6989
24 1224.615
25 1618.853
26 2449.23

2000

1500
Pipe length (m)

1000

500

0
28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
Tin (°C)

Fig. 1. Variation of pipe length as function of water inlet temperature.

 Amal Herez et al. / Energy Procedia 119 (2017) 783–791 789
A. Herez et al/ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 7

4500
4000
3500
Pipe length (m) 3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Tout (°C)

Fig. 2. Variation of pipe length as function of water outlet temperature.

3000
2500
Pipe length (m)

2000

1500

1000
500

0
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Tg (°C)

Fig. 3. Variation of pipe length as function of ground temperature.

Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the variation of pipe length as function of inlet temperature (case 1), outlet temperature
(case 2) and ground temperature (case 3) respectively. It was obtained that as inlet temperature of water increases
greater pipe length is required. To illustrate, table. 1 and fig. 1 shows that as Ti rises from 29°C to 36°C (case 1) the
pipe length increases approximately from 508 m to 1618 m. Thus, when decreasing inlet temperature by 19.4%
(from 29°C to 36°C) the length of the pipe will be decreased by 68.6%. Moreover, the outlet temperature of water
decreases the pipe length when it has higher values. For example, the pipe length decreases approximately from
3882 m to 444 m when the To increases from 22 °C to 28°C (table. 2 and fig. 2). Therefore, for reducing length of
the pipe by about 88.56% the outlet temperature must be raised by 27.27%. In addition to that, the results confirmed
that higher ground temperature increases the length of the pipe. For instance, it is clear in table. 3 and fig. 3 that as
Tg rises from 13 °C to 26 °C the length of the pipe increases from about 343 m to 2449 m. Besides, the ground
temperature is more effective above 23 °C in which the length increased gradually when Tg increased from 13 °C to
23 °C and started to rise rapidly above 24 °C. In orders of magnitudes, when Tg increased from 23 °C to 24 °C the
790 Amal Herez et al. / Energy Procedia 119 (2017) 783–791
8 A. Herez et al/ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

length increased by about 158m; however, it raised by 236 m, 394 m and 831 m when Tg rised from 24 °C to 25 °C
to 26 °C. Hence, it can be concluded that for shorter length of the pipe lower inlet and ground temperature and
higher outlet temperature are required.

4. Conclusions

The present work deals with a parametric study on horizontal geothermal heat pump. A thermal model was first
developed and then introduced to excel sheet software. The purpose of this parametric study is to discuss the impact
of several parameters on the length of pipe of geothermal heat pump. Water inlet temperature, ground temperature
and temperature of water leaving the ground are the parameters that are taken into consideration in this study.
Besides, the pipe tested is Poliplex - PE100 Series 1 - polyethylene of 16 mm and 20 mm inner and outer diameters
respectively.
Several cases were tested in which in each case one of the studied parameters is varied and the others are fixed.
For the first case, To and Tg were fixed at 27°C and 21°C respectively and Ti was the variable parameter. The results
in showed that as Ti rises approximately from 29°C to 36°C the pipe length increases approximately from 508 m to
1618 m. This means that for lower inlet temperature, smaller pipe length is needed. As for case 2, Ti and Tg were
fixed at 30°C and 21°C respectively and To was the variable parameter. The obtained results revealed that as water
outlet temperature increases the pipe length decreases. To illustrate, as To increases from 22°C to 28°C the pipe
length decreases approximately from 3882 m to 444 m. In case 3, To and Ti were fixed at 27°C and 30°C
respectively and Tg was the variable parameter. As Tg increases from 13°C to 26°C the pipe length increases from
about 343 m to 2449 m. This clarifies that for lower ground temperature, less pipe length is required. Besides, The
results shows that for Ti, To and Tg equal to 30°C, 27 °C and 21°C respectively, the required length of the pipe is
about 716 m.

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