Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

In Alberta, new buildings have also been increasingly utilizing the GeoExchange system, which uses thex000D
shallow ground-mostly less than 150 meter-as an energy reservoir for space cooling and heating. In the system,x000D
the borehole heat exchanger (BHE) is the most crucial one because the efficiency of the GeoExchange systemx000D
relies primarily on the thermal interactions between BHE and its surrounding ground. Currently, the designx000D
approach of BHE is to use analytical solutions of heat conduction governing equations under the Laplacex000D
transform. However, these models do not consider the impact of groundwater flow on the thermal performancex000D
of BHE. This impact is beneficial because the advection of groundwater helps the dissipation of heat in thex000D
ground and therefore provides a synergistic effect on the performance of BHE under both cooling and heatingx000D
modes. Consequently, this design length of BHE can be shortened, and the drilling and installation costs can bex000D
reduced substantially. To this end, we propose research collaboration between Revolve Engineering Inc. andx000D
the University of Alberta to conduct finite element method (FEM) modeling of the BHE by incorporating thex000D
co-simulation of groundwater. As a result, a more explicit understanding will be achieved on the complexx000D
thermal behavior of BHE, and the current analytical design approach will be refined for the GeoExchangex000D
system, leading to more economically feasible design. Since the GeoExchange system is increasingly popularx000D
across Canada, the outcome of this research can be directly used in other nationwide projects.