Assessment of effective borehole thermal resistance from operational data

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems use the ground as a source of sustainable thermal energy for heating and cooling of buildings. Efficient design of the ground heat exchangers (GHEs) for these systems is important so that long-term operation is adequate, efficient and cost-effective. Several design methods have been developed to size GHEs, and many of these methods, including the widely used ASHRAE method, use an effective borehole thermal resistance to model thermal processes in boreholes. A correct estimation of this parameter is crucial for an adequate sizing of borehole GHEs. This study estimates an experimental effective borehole thermal resistance of the borehole GHEs of an operating GSHP system based on monitoring data collected during the Elizabeth Blackburn School of Sciences full-scale shallow geothermal operational study in Melbourne, Australia. The experimental resistance is compared with the resistances predicted using several analytical and numerical methods. It was found that the experimental resistance can be significantly different from the resistances predicted by these other methods. The paper discusses possible reasons for such differences