International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)

Analysis of Heat transfer through a duct of geothermal

cooling and heating system
T K Jindal
Assistant Professor, PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh.
Abstract -- The present work is on the analysis of heat
transfer through duct of a geothermal cooling and heating
system. The duct is a part of a new system for space cooling
and heating using solar energy and making use of the heat
capacity of earth in support of each other [Jindal, 2007].
Thee heat transfer through the duct is through first law of
thermodynamics therefore the system consumes very small
power to overcome the pressure losses only. The system can
be very effectively used for the domestic applications. In the
present work the effect of different parameters like the
length of the duct, thickness and material of the pipe on the
heat transfer has been has been presented.

II.

The duct geometry is as shown in the figure 1. The

duct has 3 parts as given under [2].
1 Duct with temperature gradient from the surface of
earth to the point of constant temperature in the
earth
2 The length of the duct in the constant temperature
earth.
3 Duct with temperature gradient from the highest
constant temperature point to the surface of the
earth.

Keywords - Solar heater, green house, geothermal.

I.

ANALYSIS O F T HE F LOW T HROUGH DUCT

2.1 Assumptions
Various assumptions have been made which are listed
below

Earth is considered to be an infinite sink

The variations of the properties of fluid are

neglected

The air temperature at a particular section is

assumed to be equal to the mean stream
temperature.

Steady state is assumed

No heat generation

Constant Convection Coefficient (h)

Neglect Radiation

INTRODUCTION

The duct under consideration is a part of the heating

and cooling system as described in [3]. In brief, the
system is the integration of the solar thermal collector
and an underground duct to make use of thermal
capacity of the earth by transferring heat with it. The
solar collector has been coupled with underground duct
to heat the room air in winters. In summers the solar
collector works as vent and duct as a cooler. The solar
collector inclined to an angle to the ground has been used
to directly heat the air. The duct used in the system was
corrugated type flexible polybutyle pipe. The practical
problem with the duct is the odor of the duct which is
carried to the room. The use of metal pipes can eliminate
this problem. In the present work the theoretical analysis
has been done for different materials of the pipe with
different thickness. Copper, Aluminum and cast iron
pipes have been taken for study with thickness from 1.5
mm to 6.5 mm. The air velocity assumed is 2m/s, 6m/s
10 m/s, 14 m/s and 18 m/s.

2.2 Heat transfer through the duct

The heat transfer through the duct has been calculated
analytically. The analytical expressions have been
derived by dividing the duct in a number of sections one
centimeter long. The flow properties in one cm length
are assumed to be constant.[3].

284

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)

AIR IN
AIR TO
ROOM
Part A
Part C

GROUND
LEVEL
Part B

Figure 1 Schematic of the underground duct

The convective heat transfer coefficient is defined as

under

h Nu

Assuming linear variation, the general equation for the

temperature variation inside the pipe and the variation of
the pipe outside temperature has been derived and given
as under.

k
D

Nusselt number

TX

Nu 0.023 Re 4 / 5 Pr1 / 3

Prandtl Number

Pr

Reynolds Number

Re

(1)
Where,
ro Outer radius of the duct
ri Inner radius of the duct
k Thermal conductivity of the duct material
h Convective heat transfer coefficient
There is a temperature gradient in the earth up to a
depth of the 3m and further below, the temperature is
seen to be fairly constant[4].. For horizontal part of the
pipe the temperature of the ground outside the pipe
remains constant. The analysis has been done by dividing
the pipe into a number of parts with inlet temperature Tyi
and outlet temperature Ty(i+1) , therefore

uD

Kinematic-viscosity

k Thermal conductivity.

Thermal diffusivity

D Diameter of the pipe

u Air Flow velocity
The duct has been divided into a number of elemental
lengths of length L each. The inlet air temperature is TA
and Tx is the temperature at the length L. Tei and Tex are
the corresponding earth temperature. The variation of the
air temperature in the Vertical Down section is from T A
to

2khri
TA Tex Tei
L

hri log ro / ri k
2

2khri
L
2
ri VC p
hri log ro / ri k 2

ri 2VC pTA

Where,

Ty (i ) Tex (i ) Tei (i )
2khri

hri log ro / ri k
2
2

khr
L
i
ri 2VC p
hri log ro / ri k 2

ri 2VC pTy (i )
Ty (i 1)

T X . Similarly, the variation of the pipe outside

temperature is from Tei to Tex .

285

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)
III.

Total heat transfer

The total heat transfer in the duct is given by the
following expression
n

Q( i )
1

T y (i 1) T y (i ) Tex (i ) Tei (i )
2khri

hri logro / ri k
2

RESULTS

The heat transfer through the duct for different

velocities, different materials and different sizes has been
calculated and presented in the form of table-1 below.
Vel. Is the velocity in the pipe(duct) in m/s, Temp. is the
exit temperature in degree celcius , Heat represents the
total heat transfer per second (Watts). Inlet temperature
has been taken as 40 degree celcius.
(3)

Table 1
Heat transfer parameters for the duct of total length 20 m.

Copper
Thickness

1.5 mm

2.5 mm

3.5 mm

4.5 mm

5.5 mm

Vel.

Temp.

2.0

26.1

6.0

Aluminum
Heat

Poly Butyle

Vel.

Temp

Heat

Vel.

Temp

399.1

2.0

26.1

399.1

2.0

26.1

398.5

2.0

26.1

399.1

27.0

1144.0

6.0

27.0

1143.9

6.0

27.1

1137.4

6.0

27.0

1143.7

10.0

27.4

1854.4

10.0

27.4

1854.3

10.0

27.6

1835.8

10.0

27.5

1853.6

14.0

27.8

2543.2

14.0

27.8

2543.0

14.0

28.1

2506.8

14.0

27.8

2541.7

18.0

28.1

3216.0

18.0

28.1

3215.7

18.0

28.4

3156.2

18.0

28.1

3213.4

2.0

26.1

399.2

2.0

26.1

399.2

2.0

26.1

398.4

2.0

26.1

399.2

6.0

27.0

1143.9

6.0

27.0

1143.9

6.0

27.1

1134.8

6.0

27.0

1143.6

10.0

27.4

1854.4

10.0

27.4

1854.2

10.0

27.7

1828.5

10.0

27.5

1853.3

14.0

27.8

2543.1

14.0

27.8

2542.8

14.0

28.1

2492.6

14.0

27.8

2541.0

18.0

28.1

3215.9

18.0

28.1

3215.4

18.0

28.5

3133.0

18.0

28.1

3212.3

2.0

26.1

399.2

2.0

26.1

399.2

2.0

26.2

398.1

2.0

26.1

399.2

6.0

27.0

1143.9

6.0

27.0

1143.9

6.0

27.1

1132.3

6.0

27.0

1143.4

10.0

27.4

1854.3

10.0

27.4

1854.1

10.0

27.8

1821.4

10.0

27.5

1852.9

14.0

27.8

2543.1

14.0

27.8

2542.7

14.0

28.2

2478.7

14.0

27.8

2540.3

18.0

28.1

3215.7

18.0

28.1

3215.1

18.0

28.6

3110.4

18.0

28.1

3211.1

2.0

26.1

399.2

2.0

26.1

399.2

2.0

26.2

397.9

2.0

26.1

399.2

6.0

27.0

1143.9

6.0

27.0

1143.8

6.0

27.2

1129.8

6.0

27.0

1143.3

10.0

27.4

1854.3

10.0

27.5

1854.0

10.0

27.8

1814.4

10.0

27.5

1852.6

14.0

27.8

2543.0

14.0

27.8

2542.5

14.0

28.3

2465.1

14.0

27.8

2539.6

18.0

28.1

3215.6

18.0

28.1

3214.8

18.0

28.8

3088.3

18.0

28.1

3210.0

2.0

26.1

399.2

2.0

26.1

399.2

2.0

26.2

397.6

2.0

26.1

399.2

6.0

27.0

1143.9

6.0

27.0

1143.8

6.0

27.2

1127.3

6.0

27.0

1143.2

10.0

27.4

1854.2

10.0

27.5

1854.0

10.0

27.9

1807.5

10.0

27.5

1852.2

14.0

27.8

2542.9

14.0

27.8

2542.3

14.0

28.4

2451.8

14.0

27.8

2538.9

18.0

28.1

3215.4

18.0

28.1

3214.5

18.0

28.9

3066.7

18.0

28.1

3208.9

286

Vel.

Temp

Cast Iron

Heat

Heat

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)
IV.

REFERENCES

D ISCUSSION AND C ONCLUSION

[1 ] Jindal,T K ,2007, A new solar room heater and cooling system

,Proc. ICEAR-2007,IITB,Mumbai, Dec,2007.
[2 ] Garg H P, Prakash J, 2005, Solar Energy, Tata McGraw Hill
Publishing Company.
[3 ] Kays W M,Crawford M E, Convective heat and mass
transfer,Mcgraw Hill Book Company.
[4 ] Sanchez M M, Lucas M, Martinez M, Sanchez, Viedma A, 2002,
Climatic Solar Roof: An Ecological Alternative to Heat
Dissipation in Buildings, Solar Energy, 419432.
[5 ] Hirunlabh J, Kongduang W, Namprakai P, Khedari P, 1999, Study
of natural ventilation of houses by a metallic solar wall under
tropical climate, Renewable Energy,109-119.
[6 ] Khedari J, Weerapong Mansirisub, Chaima S, Pratinthong N,
Hirunlabh J,2000, Field measurements of performance of roof
solar collector, Energy and Buildings,171178.

From the table 1 generated it is observed that the flow

velocity has major effect on the heat transfer
characteristics in the duct. The thickness of the pipe does
not affect the heat transfer much.
There is a very small difference in the heat transfer
and temperature at the exit for different metals like
Aluminum, Copper and Cast iron. However the heat
transfer for poly butyle pipe is affected but only upto
maximum of 5%.
The small effect of the material and thickness may be
due to the fact that for the low velocities the heat transfer
time is sufficient even for thicker material with low
thermal conductivity because the earth has been assumed
to be having infinite capacity.
The experimental investigation was also done [3] for a
flow velocity of 2 m/s with poly butyl which confirmed
the theoretical results but the same has not been tested so
far for higher velocities.

287