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Numerical investigations of enhanced shallow geothermal energy recovery using microencapsulated phase change materials and metal fins

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Abstract

The efficiency of shallow geothermal energy recovery has been constrained by both the short-term temperature anomaly around heat exchangers and the long-term ground heat depletion. This study presents numerical investigations of significant improvement in the thermal performance of energy piles by using microencapsulated phase change materials (mPCM) and metal fins in the ground. A three-dimensional hydrothermal FEM model of an energy pile embedded in the ground is developed, validated, and extended to consider phase change and latent heat in the ground to evaluate the thermal performance of the energy pile under various ground conditions. The results show that both the energy harvest amount and efficiency can be evidently improved by mixing small proportions of mPCM in the ground to utilize its latent heat. The recovery energy from the sand–mPCM mixture is twice that of just sand and thrice that of the pure granular mPCM ground during seasonal operations. Moreover, the temperature influence zone is significantly shrinked in the sand–mPCM mixture ground. In addition, installing metal fins around the energy pile can accelerate heat conduction with the far field and furtherly improve the heat recovery efficiency. This study sheds light on efficient and environmentally friendly geothermal energy recovery using phase change materials.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work primarily supported by the US National Science Foundation (EEC-1449501 and CMMI-1943722). Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSF. Data in this manuscript are available upon request. We appreciate the constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Yimin Lu & Sheng Dai

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA

    Douglas D. Cortes

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Xiong (Bill) Yu

  4. Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Guillermo Narsilio

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  1. Yimin Lu
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Correspondence to Sheng Dai.

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Lu, Y., Cortes, D.D., Yu, X. et al. Numerical investigations of enhanced shallow geothermal energy recovery using microencapsulated phase change materials and metal fins. Acta Geotech. 18, 2869–2882 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-022-01715-1

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