Experimental Investigations on Thermal Performance of a Novel Groundwater-Filled Borehole Heat Exchanger

The borehole heat exchangers are valuable elements of shallow geothermal systems such as the ground-coupled heat pumps or borehole thermal energy storage systems. The reduction of their installation costs with novel concept design represents a challenge. The natural and forced groundwater movement as well as the temperature driven flow affect the heat transfer performance in shallow geothermal systems. A simulation experimental system has been set up to investigate the thermal performance of an innovative design of groundwater-filled borehole heat exchanger. The developed innovative design helped to considerably increase the heat transfer efficiency. Further investigations are required for the operative installation of the groundwater-filled borehole heat exchanger at field scale.