Finite Element Analysis for the Heat Transfer of Ground Heat Exchanger

A review of the analytical conduction models for ground heat exchangers was presented first, followed with the developed 3D finite element model based on the ANSYS. The developed model was constructed using a conduction-advection element and meshing trick that enabled the cost-effective simulation for complex heat transfer around ground buried heat exchangers. The validation of the developed model was performed by the two case studies under the short-term conditions and the good performance of the developed model was encouraging.