Analysis of the transient performance of coaxial and u-tube borehole heat exchangers

While coaxial borehole heat exchangers often have lower borehole thermal resistances than u-tubes, studies in the literature have mixed results as to whether the coaxial design always outperforms the u-tube. This study contributes a systematic comparison between the two designs, accomplished using a custom numerical model in OpenFOAM that provides detailed predictions of the heat transfer within the ground heat exchangers. The modelling and subsequent analysis of system thermal resistances demonstrated that the u-tube and coaxial heat exchanger performances differed the most during the early, transient phase of operation. Furthermore, modelling showed that the coaxial design does not necessarily exceed the u-tube performance long term; testing of coaxial heat exchangers with polyethylene piping showed small differences in outlet temperature compared to the u-tube after 72 h. Additional testing showed that using a steel coaxial outer tube could provide a 22% improvement to performance over the u-tube design. These findings are used to compare predictions of thermal resistance with available analytical models. The impact of the results on the potential for length reductions is also discussed.