Performance of a spiral ground heat exchanger for heat pump application

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Abstract
A high-efficiency ground heat exchanger has been developed for use with ground-source heat pumps. The exchanger is made of copper tubing, shaped in the form of a spiral, which can be installed in a vertical borehole backfilled with sand. Thermal performance of a full-scale prototype indicated that this heat exchanger can achieve very high heat extraction rates if subfreezing operating temperatures are used. For most soil types cyclic freezing and thawing is not a problem; however, for the sensitive Leda clay in which the prototype tests were conducted, substantial settlement occurred after the first freeze-thaw cycle owing to initial collapse of the soil structure.

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