COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EARTH TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER MATERIALS FOR COOLING OF AIR

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING (THERMAL)

ABSTRACT-Earth tube heat exchanger systems can be used to cool the building in summer climate and heat the buildings in winter climate. In a developing country like India, there is a huge gap in demand and supply of electricity and rising electricity prices have forced us to look for cheaper and cleaner alternative. Our objective can be met by the use of earth tube heat exchangers and the system is very simple which works by moving the heat from the house into the earth during hot weather and cold weather. Measurements show that the ground temperature below a certain depth remains relatively constant throughout the year. Experimental investigations were done on the experimental set up in Lakshmi Narayan College of Technology, Bhopal. Effects of the operating parameters i.e. air velocity and temperature on the thermal performance of horizontal ground heat exchanger have been studied. For the pipe of 9m length and 0.05m diameter, temperature falling of 3.930C-12.60C in hot weather and temperature rising of 6oC-10oC in cold weather have been observed for the outlet flow velocity 11 m/s. At higher outlet velocity and maximum temperature difference, the system is most efficient to be used.

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