Performance Analysis of Soil to Air Heat Exchangers

The overall objective of this research is to present a complete numerical approach for the study of TCSA. For this, three specific objectives were defined: i) improvement of the computational model, developing the Compact Computational Model (CCM); ii) definition of the Energy Performance Indicator (EPI) dedicated to the analysis of TCSA; and iii) application of the Constructive Design method, associated with the CCM and the EPI, in a case study of TCSA in a 'Y' shape. The results showed that it was possible to: (i) validate and verify the CCM, which presents, among other improvements, the decoupled treatment between the thermal and fluid-dynamic problems, the reduction of the processing time and the possibility to numerically simulate the TCSA in any region of the planet; ii) to prove the effectiveness of PPE, allowing with a single indicator the performance of TCSA to be evaluated, considering thermal and fluid dynamic parameters; and iii) to define the optimal TCSA configuration in 'Y', generating a monthly electric energy economy of up to 117.72 kWh (heating), in cold periods, and 74.13 kWh (cooling), in hot periods.