Influence of Convalescence on Soil Temperature Field around a Vertically buried Single-U-Tube Ground Heat Exchanger

The mathematical physical model of the heat and moisture transfer in the single-U-tube heat exchanger of a ground source heat pump (GSHP) is validated using observed data from the practical rock-soil thermal response test on a resident district in Taiyuan, the soil is layered according to the geological structure of an actual drill in the depth direction in this model. Inputting the dynamic design cooling and heating load of the district into the Realizable k - epsilon turbulent model in Fluent, the temperature fields of a single well in the GSHP project running for 1 year in 2 conditions in which convalescence is considered and not, are simulated numerically. It shows that it rather necessary to take the influence of convalescence into consideration while predicting the soil temperature field of a GSHP system running for a long term, or may not correspond to the reality and make a wrong theory guide to the practical engineering.