International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

A new model and solutions for a spiral heat exchanger

and its experimental validation
Huai Li , Katsunori Nagano, Yuanxiang Lai
Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, N13-W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 23 October 2011
Received in revised form 29 February 2012
Accepted 25 March 2012
Available online 1 May 2012
Keywords:
Ring source
Spiral heat exchanger
Theoretical methodology
System design

a b s t r a c t
A spiral heat exchanger was applied in a ground source heat pump (GSHP) system that is primarily used
for residential indoor heating. Studies that have been performed on the heat transfer of spiral heat
exchanger have focused on eld measurements and numerical analysis; however, theoretical research
on the subject is absent in the literature. In this study, a methodology is proposed to analyze the heat
performance of a spiral heat exchanger. A ring source model was established and solved analytically to
describe the temperature variation of the ground caused by a spiral heat exchanger. The validity of the
model was examined by an experiment on the soil temperature variation with a spiral heater. The virtual
ring tube surface temperature response of unit ring circle was calculated by a superposition of the contributions of the ring source itself and adjacent ring sources. Furthermore, a fast algorithm was created to
compute the average tube surface temperature resulting from the dimensionless temperature rise at a
point far from the ring source that is constant when the non-dimensional distance is less than 0.13.
The author conrmed that the calculation time of this proposed algorithm decreased by a factor of 100
compared with the traditional integration method. A system designer will nd this algorithm helpful
when determining the size of a heat exchanger under a required heating load, particularly for different
arrangement of spiral heat exchangers.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Due to such benets as high efciency and low CO2 emission,
energy consumption and maintenance costs, vertical ground
source heat pump (GSHP) systems are used worldwide to provide
space heating/cooling and domestic hot water (DHW). However,
the relatively high installation cost of these systems is still the barrier preventing its domination in the market. Alternatively, the
horizontal-coupled GSHP system has gradually attracted attention
due to its low installation cost and is widely used in countries with
relatively wide residential land area distributions, such as the USA,
Canada and Australia. The horizontal heat exchanger requires only
shallow channels, and with this system, the soil temperature variation can be recovered before the next heating cycle begins without the requirement of heat injection [2].
There are three types of horizontal-coupled GSHP systems: the
single-pipe, multiple-pipe, and spiral-type systems [1], as shown in
Fig. 1(a). Models, both numerical and analytical, have been created
and utilized together with experimental measurements to analyze
the thermal response of single- and multiple-pipe heat exchangers
[28]. However, few studies have been conducted on spiral heat
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81 (0)11 706 6286.
E-mail address: lihuai027@eng.hokudai.ac.jp (H. Li).
0017-9310/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2012.03.084

exchangers [911], and all of the studies have focused on experiment measurements and numerical model analysis. To the best
of the authors knowledge, there has been no theoretical analysis
performed on spiral heat exchangers. The development of a theoretical model would be extremely helpful in determining the required horizontal heat exchanger size. Furthermore, the use of
this methodology in conjunction with the existing tool used to design vertical borehole systems would be possible.
The main difculty in the thermal analysis of a horizontal heat
exchanger is accounting for the temperature uctuations throughout the year below and on the surface, which cannot be neglected
in the case of borehole systems [1316]. However, from a system
design perspective, the minimum heat extraction capability of a
heat exchanger under cold conditions should satisfy the system
requirements. Thus, a specic condition can be assumed for the
boundary condition.
The objective of this study was to provide a theoretical methodology with which a designer can determine the size of a spiral heat
exchanger. For this purpose, a ring source model was established to
describe the temperature response caused by a single spiral circle.
The analytical solutions of the model were presented in both innite and semi-innite mediums. An experiment was performed to
verify the model. The virtual tube surface temperature was computed by superimposing the temperature response of the ring

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

Nomenclature
a
Cp
Fo
k
Qr
P
qrs
qr
q0r

ground thermal diffusion m2 s1

specic heat J kg1 K1
dimensionless time
thermal conductivity W m1 K1
instant heat extraction/injection per ring source
random point
heat ow rate
instant heat extraction/injection per meter J m1
q0r r o qrs W

h, h0

temperature response K
dimensionless temperature
r, c, u, x, f angle coordinate rad
e
relative error
q
density kg m3
s
time s

H, H0

Subscripts
0, 1, 2 . . . i, j, n ring source number
m
denotes the end of a time step
inf
innite medium
sf
semi-innite medium
sf  fluid average uid temperature inside the tube
sf  sa
tube surface temperature
sf  sa average tube surface temperature
sf  RSj surface temperature response of ring source j
sf  RSj, i inuence of temperature on ring source j caused by ring
source i
sf  RSj; i inuence of temperature on ring source j caused by ring
source i calculated by the average method
p
point P
sa
tube surface
j, i
from ring source j to i

q0rm1 ; q0rm q0r at time m and time m  1 W

R, R, Ro
Rt
RSi
r
r
r0
ro
rt
r
t, t1, t2
x; y; z
x0 ; y0 ; z0
X, Z, Z0

dimensionless distance
effective tube thermal resistance K m W1
ith ring source
radial coordinate
average distance m
distance m
ring source radius m
tube radius m
distance from point to ring source m
time s
Cartesian coordinate m
dimensionless axial coordinate

Greek letters
b, l
integral parameter

source itself and the inuence from the adjacent ring sources. Furthermore, according to the temperature distribution of the ring
source, a fast algorithm was developed to calculate the average
tube surface temperature excess of the spiral heat exchanger,
and its application is presented in a simple case study. The calculation time is 1/100th that of the general method. The system designer can take advantage of the algorithm when designing the
system size for different spiral heat exchanger arrangements.

Qr = 2pqrro. Fig. 2 illustrates the geometry of the single ring source

system.
hinf r; u; z; t

Z 2p

qr r o
p

qC p 2 pat  s3

"

 exp 

#
r o cos r  r cos u2 r o sin r  r sin u2 z2
dr
4at  s

2
Due to the symmetry of the ring source temperature eld, hinf is
independent of u.The continuous temperature response at point P
after the appearance of a heat source at s is

2. Ring source model and its solutions

2.1. Ring source model in an innite medium

hinf r; z; t

Z
0

Following the assumptions from the line source model [1315] of

borehole heat exchangers, the ring source model was built on the
assumptions that the ground is a homogeneous innite medium,
the soil thermal properties are independent of temperature changes,
and the initial temperature variation of the ground is constant.
2.1.1. Single ring source model
According to Greens function, the temperature increase at
point (x, y, z) after appearing an impulse heat source located at
(x0 , y0 , z0 ) in an innite solid at time s at an initial temperature of
0 can be expressed as
"
#
1
x  x0 2 y  y0 2 z  z0 2
hinf x; y; z; t p 3 exp 
4at  s
2 pat  s

1
The temperature increase caused by the ring source is obtained by
integrating all of the contributions of the point source on the ring circle. Assuming an instantaneous point source with a strength of qrrodr
that is distributed around the ring (rocosr, rosinr, 0), the temperature
rise at time s at point (r, u, z) in cylindrical coordinates can be determined by Eq. (2) [12]. The total liberated heat of the ring source is

Z 2p
0

"

qsr r o
p

qC p 2 pat  s3

 exp 

#
r o cos r  r cos u2 r o sin r  r sin u2 z2
dr ds
4at  s

3
2

After inserting b =  [(rocosr  rcosu) + (rosin r  rsinu) + z2]/

4a(t  s) into Eq. (3) and solving the time integral, Eq. (3) becomes

9
 

q0 R 2p
>
=
hinf r; z; t 4prk 0 r1 erfc pr
dr
4at
q
>
r ro cos r  r cos u2 r o sin r  r sin u2 z2 ;

Here, q0r qsr ro ; a k=C p q; r  is the distance between the ring

R1
2
source and point P, and erfcl p2p l expb db is the error function.
The dimensionless temperature response is obtained by using
the characteristic length ro and the dimensionless variables
R r =ro ; R r=r o ; Z z=r o ; F o at=r 2o ; and Hinf hinf kr o =q0r in
Eq. (4), which yields


 9

>
R
p

=
dr >
erfc
0
r
4F o
q >
>
R cos r  R cos u2 sin r  R sin u2 Z 2 ;

Hinf R; Z; F o hinf r; z; t krq0o 41p

R 2p

1
R

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

fan

GL
Q

(1) spiral heat exchanger

(2) single heat exchanger

(3) multiple heat exchanger

(a) Typical horizontal heat exchangers: (1) spiral, (2) single-pip e and (3) multiple-type

(b) Example of a typical spiral heat exchanger

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of horizontal ground heat exchangers.

virtual ring sink/source

q'r

r -*

P(r, ,z)
x

0
-z

q'r

r+*

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the ring source model in an innite medium.

p
Alternatively, if the characteristic length ro in Eq. (5) is r0 r2 z2

0
0
0
and the variables are redened as R = r /r , Ro = ro/r , R = r/r , Z = z/r0 ,
0
Fo = at/r0 2, and H0inf h0inf kr =q0r in Eq. (4), the dimensionless temperature excess can be expressed in another form as

9

>
=
H0inf R; Z; F o h0inf r; z; t krq0 41p 0 R1 erfc pR dr >
r
4F o
q >
>
R Ro cos r  R cos u2 Ro sin r  R sin u2 Z 2 ;
0

R 2p

ring source
Fig. 3. Schematic representation of a ring source in a semi-innite medium.

hinf ;p

n1
kro X
Hinf ;i X i ; Z 0i ; R; Z; F o
0
qr i0

h0inf ;p

n1
kX
r0 H0 X i ; Z 0i ; R; Z; F oi
0
qr i0 i inf ;i

2.1.2. Multiple ring source model

If the temperature rise at point P is caused by multiple ring
sources with n units circles, of which the parameters of the ith
ring source are denoted as (xi + rocosr, rosinr, zi 0 ), the dimensionless temperature response is obtained by applying the superposition principle in space. For Eq. (8), r0 in Eq. (6) becomes r 0i
q
xi  r cosu2 r sinu2 z  z0i 2

2.2. Ring source model in a semi-innite medium

It is known from the literature [2] that the ground temperature
decreases during the heating operation and recovers gradually before the next heating operation begins without articial heat injection if the horizontal system is used for heating only. Therefore, it
is possible to determine the heat exchanger size from one year of
operation data.

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

1.2
1
0.8

inf

Because the purpose of this study was to provide a methodology

with which designers can determine the heat exchanger size, two
boundary conditions were considered. For the warm region without snow covering the surface, the buried ground heat exchanger
extracts heat from both the ground surface and non-surface sides.
From experience, the temperature of the soil surface can be assumed to be constant. In the cold region, the ground is covered
by snow in the winter season, and the surface is maintained at
approximately 0 C during the heating operation period. The
ground heat exchanger primarily extracts heat at temperatures below 0 C from the non-surface side. The snow on the surface acts as
thermal insulation, and in this case, the surface is taken as an adiabatic boundary condition.
The initial soil temperature is assumed to be the average soil
temperature from the ground surface to 5 m under the surface.

0.4




erfc pr dr

9
r 
q0 R 2p
>
>
 r1
hsf r; z; t 4prk 0 r1 erfc p
>
4at
>


4qt
>
q =
2
2
2

r r o cos r  r cos u r o sin r  r sin u z0  z >
>
q >
>
>
;
2
2
2

0
r  r o cos r  r cos u r o sin r  r sin u z  z


0
0

0.36

R 2p
0

1
R

11

By changing the characteristic length ro to r 0 r 0 ; r 0 and substituting

the dimensionless parameters R = r/r0 , Ro = ro /r0 , Z0 = z0 /r0 , R = r/r0 ,
0
0
Z = z/r0 , Fo = at/r 2, and H0sf h0sf kr =q0r into Eq. (9), dimensionless
temperature response can be expressed in another form as

10

'
inf

0.3
0.28
0.26
0.24
0.22
0.2
0.001

0.01

Ro

0.1

Fig. 5. Dimensionless temperature response H0inf vs. R0 with Fo as the parameter.

0.15
0.12
0.09
0.06
0.03

!
!#
r 
1
r 

p
p
erfc
erfc

dr
r 
r 
4at  tm
4at  tm





9

R

 R1 erfc pR
>
dr >
erfc p
>
>

4F o
4F o
>
q =
2
2

0 2
R cos r  R cos u sin r  R sin u Z Z >
>
q >
>
>
2
2

0 2;
R cos r  R cos u sin r  R sin u Z  Z

Hsf R; Z; F o 41p

0.32

Z 2p "
1

where q0rm1  q0rm is the incremental heat load between two successive pulses [17].
The dimensionless form of Eq. (9) is given by Eq. (11) by applying the following dimensionless variables: R r =r o ; Z 0 z0 =r o ;
R r=ro ; Z z=r o ; F o at=r 2o ; and Hsf hsf kro =q0r .

from top Fo =10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3

0
0.001

10

0.34

4pk

0.38

n q0  q0
X
rm
rm1

Fig. 4. Dimensionless temperature response Hinf vs. R with Fo as the parameter.

Regarding the variable heat extraction/injection rate, the temperature response at time t is determined by dividing the heat rejection/extraction into a series of step functions and superimposing
the response to each step function. For example, if the heat rejection/extraction rate varies at time t1,t2, . . . , then Eq. (9) is expressed
as

m1

hsf r; z; t

fromtop Fo =0.38, 3.82, 38.25, 382.50

0.2

2.2.1. Single ring source model

The geometry of the single ring source in a semi-innite medium is illustrated in Fig. 3, which shows a ring source with a heating rate of q0r located at position (rocosr, rosinr, z0 ) and a virtual
ring sink/source with the same dimensions but with the heating
rate q0r applied symmetrically over the boundary. The boundary
condition is compiled due to the symmetry of the heat source
and the virtual heat sink/source. Therefore, the temperature rise
at point P in the semi-innite medium is written as shown in Eq.
(9), where the - in the rst equation refers to the constant boundary condition and + denotes the insulation condition; the symbols
are used in the following discussion.

0.6

Ro = 0.008
R= 50

0.01

Ro = 0.13
R= 3.08

Ro

0.1

Fig. 6. Relative difference of H0inf when Ro < 1.

9
>
>
>




>
>

R
R

>
2p 1
2p 1
R
R
>
1
1
>
4p 0 R erfc p dr  4p 0 R erfc p dr
>
>


4F o
4F o
>
>
q >
>
2
2
2>

0
=
R Ro cos r  R cos u Ro sin r  R sin u Z Z >
q
>
>
R Ro cos r  R cos u2 Ro sin r  R sin u2 Z  Z 0 2 >
>
>
>
q
>
>
>
2
0
0
2
>
r r z  z
>
>
>
>
q
>
>
2
;
0
0
2
r r z  z

H0sf R; Z; F o H0sf R; Z; F o  H0sf  R; Z; F o

12
2.2.2. Multiple ring source model
The superposition principle is used in space to obtain the temperature response at a point caused by multiple ring sources. If a
spiral heat exchanger consists of n ring source units, of which the

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

thermal insulation
thermal insulation
spiral heater

P2
spiral heater

mesh
and
T
filter

water

120

water saturated sand

400

water

mesh
and
filter

water saturated sand

water

400

120

120

water

500

P1

mesh
and
filter

800

mesh
and
filter

T :Temperature sensor

120

(a) Schematic of the section plan of the experiment apparatus

(b) Schematic of the top view of the experimental apparatus

Fig. 7. Schematic representation of the experiment.

parameters of the ith ring source are denoted as xi ro cos r;

ro sin r; z0i , the temperature rise at point P in a semi-innite medium can be computed by Eq. (13) or Eq. (14).

unit: mm

120

260

hsf ;p r; z; t

n1
kr o X
Hsf X i ; Z 0i ; R; Z; F o
q0r i0

13

h0sf ;p r; z; t

n1
kX
r 0 H0 X i ; Z 0i ; R; Z; F oi  r 0i H0sf  X i ; Z 0i ; R; Z; F oi
0
qr i0 i sf

14

370

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Ring source temperature distribution in an innite medium
3.1.1. Single ring source temperature eld
Assuming that a point is located on the same plane as the ring
source according to Eq. (5), the variation of its dimensionless temperature response Hinf with respect to R at different Fo caused by a
ring source (rocosr, rosinr, 0) is shown in Fig. 4. As can be seen from
the gure, high temperatures appear around the circumference of
the ring source when R is close to 1; however, the temperatures decrease rapidly away from the circumference.
From the dimensionless temperature response derived from Eq.
(6), the relation between H0inf and Ro in the region where Ro < 1 is
plotted in Fig. 5. It can be seen that H0inf is almost constant in the region where Ro < 0.13, where the relative error ee jH0 R; F o 
H0 50; F o j=H0 50; F o is less than 1% (Fig. 6). In other words, the
temperature increase at a point far from the ring source can be
approximated by the temperature increase caused by a continuous
point source with the same heating rate as that of the ring that is located at the center of the ring source. Therefore, the relation between H0inf and Fo can be expressed by a single curve, which can
be used to easily calculate the actual temperature response at the
concerned point, thereby reducing the calculation time.
3.1.2. Multiple-ring-source temperature eld and experimental
verication
As described by Eq. (7), the temperature rise at point P caused
by multiple ring sources is computed by adding all of the contributions of the ring sources. To examine the applicability of this algorithm in practice, a simple experiment was performed.

Measuring point
Fig. 8. Spiral heater used in the experiment.

The equipment used for the experiment included a well-insulated stainless steel box. The box consisted of three sections, which
were separated by metal mesh and a lter, as shown in Fig. 7a and
b. The lateral sections were water sinks, and the middle section
was lled with saturated silica sand inside which the spiral heater
was buried to represent the heat exchanger. A constant temperature water circulator maintained the water at 20 C in the three
sections to provide a constant initial ground temperature. After
conrming the sand was uniformly at 20 C, the circulator was
turned off, and the electric heater was heated up. An insulated
board covered the top of the equipment to prevent heat loss when
the experiment began.
The spiral heater consisted of a 4-m-long electrical sheath heater, as shown in Fig. 8. The output power was set at a constant value of 100 W. The soil properties and the parameters of the heater
are presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
Assuming perfect insulation, the soil temperature could be calculated under an insulated boundary condition as presented in
Fig. 9(a) and (b). The computed soil temperature variation at points
1 and 2 were compared with the measurement results and are presented in Fig. 10. As can be seen, the two sets of results were in
good agreement throughout the entire period (less than 30 h), with

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

Table 1
Physical properties of the sand in the experiment.
Name
Silica sand 6#

k (W m1 K1)

Cp (kJ kg1 K1)

2.20

q (kg m3)

1.73

2.07  10

Saturation

Porosity

0.99

0.38

Table 2
Parameters of the spiral heat exchanger used in the experiment.
Heat exchanger

Units

Total area (m2)

Total length (m)

Average circle radius (m)

Spiral

10

9.62  102

4.00

1.16  101

y
+q

+q
2

+q

virtual heater

heater

(a) Schematic of the top view

+q

+q

+q
virtual heater

=0
z

x
z

heater
+q

+q

+q

(b) Schematic of the plan view

Fig. 9. Schematic representation of the soil temperature boundary condition.

a maximum difference of approximately 0.5 C. Based on these

results, the validity of the multiple ring source computation can
be conrmed and used for practical applications.
3.2. Virtual ring tube surface temperature in a semi-innite medium
3.2.1. Average virtual tube surface temperature response of a single
ring tube
The spiral heat exchanger was buried in a shallow channel, and
heat exchange occurred between the uid inside the tube and the
surrounding soil. The tube surface temperature is important in calculating the uid temperature, which is needed to determine the
heat exchanger size. In this study, a virtual tube surface is assumed,
as depicted in Fig. 11, where the center axis circle is the ring source.
According to the symmetry of the ring circle temperature eld, any

cross-section that is perpendicular to the axis circle has an identical

temperature response. Thus, to take advantage of the cross-section,
which has coordinates of [(ro + rtcosc), 0, (rtsinc  z0 )], its average
temperature rise is regarded as the representative temperature increase of the virtual tube surface. The dimensionless temperature
response is expressed in Eq. (15), where rt and ro denote the radii
of the virtual tube and the ring source circle, respectively.

Hsf sa R; F o p1

Rp
0

Hsf R; Z; F o dc

R r=r o ro rt cos c=r o ; 0 6 c 6 2p

)
15

3.2.2. Temperature inuence of adjacent ring sources

The model of the spiral heat exchanger embedded in shallow
ground can be simplied using the half-superposition of single ring
source located in the same plane. In practical applications, a unit

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

60
Calculation
Measurement

55

50
1

45

40

35

30

25

20
5

10

15

25

20

30

t [h]
Fig. 10. Soil temperature variation determined by the measurements and calculations.

(xj +ro cos , yj +ro sin , -z)

ring source/sink

(xj ,yj ,-z)

qr

z = z

rji
base RSj

(0,0,0)

(0,0,-z)
z

z = -z

rt
ro x

ro

cross-section of
the virtual tube
virtual tube surface

objective RSi
Fig. 12. Schematic representation of the adjacent circles in the multiple-type
arrangement.

ring source qr

Fig. 11. Schematic representation of the virtual circle tube surface.

ring source of the spiral heat exchanger has a tube diameter of

21.527 mm, and the ring source interval generally ranges from
0.4 to 0.8 m. Thus, the tube radius can be ignored because it is
smaller than the ring source interval; therefore, the temperature
response of the concerned ring source due to an adjacent ring
source can be approximately treated as the response on the axis
of a particular circular cross-section. For example, using the two
ring sources (RSj and RSi) in Fig. 12, suppose that RSj is the ring
source, referred to as the base source, and its axial circle coordinate
is (xj + rocos (x), yj + rosin(x), z). RSi is its adjacent ring source
with a center coordinate of (0, 0, z). According to the previous discussion, the dimensionless temperature response at a random position of RSj caused by RSi can be obtained using Eq. (11) by
q
substituting r ji xj ro cosx2 yj ro sinx2 for r. Thus,
the temperature rise of RSj is regarded as the mean temperature
excess and is an integral average of the temperature of the ring
source. Due to symmetry, the temperature rise is equals to the
integration along the half-circle divided by the center connection
line, which, according to Fig. 12, is

Hsf RSj;i R; F o

1p

Hsf R; Z; F o dx

16

3.2.3. Temperature variation of a single tube surface within a multiple

arrangement
The temperature response of a unit ring tube surface of a spiral
heat exchanger is determined by the superposition principle of the
primary temperature rises due to the effect of the ring source temperature on the tube surface itself and the temperature inuence
caused by the adjacent ring sources. Thus, the temperature response of the base ring source in a spiral heat exchanger with n
units is expressed in Eq. (17) as

Hsf RSj R; F o Hsf sa R; F o

n1
X

Hsf RSj;i Ri ; F o

17

i0;ij

3.2.4. Average ring tube surface temperature within a multiple

arrangement
The average ring tube surface temperature of a spiral heat exchanger is the average surface temperature of each unit, as described by

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

Fig. 13. Dimensionless average temperature response Hsf RSji vs. Fo and the relative error e.

1.2

0.2
integration
average

0.18
j,i= 50

0.16
0.14

0.8
j,i= 60

0.12

j,i= 70

0.6

0.1

j,i= 80

0.08

j,i= 90

0.4

0.06
0.04

from top j,i= 60,70, 80, 90

0.2

0.02
0

0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

t [y]
Fig. 14. Comparison of the dimensionless temperature between the integration and average methods among different circles and the relative error.

hsf sa r; t

n1
1X
hsf RSj r; t
n j0

18

After the average tube surface temperature is obtained, the uid

temperature inside the tube can be calculated (Eq. (19)), and thus,
the size of the heat exchanger that guarantees the required heating
load, can be obtained.

hfluid t ho hsf sa r; t qrs tRt

numerous ring source units. Therefore, an approximation approach

is recommended for faster calculation.
In this study, the temperature response of RSj due to RSi is represented by the temperature response at a point whose distance to
the RSi center equals the average distance between RSj and the center of RSi, as described in Eq. (20).

H0sf RSj;i R; Z; F o 41p

19

where ho is the initial soil temperature, ho hsf sa is the soil temperature of the tube surface, Rt is the thermal resistance of the tube,
hf luid is the average uid temperature inside the tube, and qrs is the
heat ow rate per unit length of the tube.

4. The fast algorithm used to calculate the multiple-ring tube

temperature
4.1. Fast calculation algorithm
The temperature inuence of multiple ring tubes can be computed by Eq. (16); however, this method takes time, particularly
when the conguration of the spiral heat exchanger consists of

Rp
r rji p1 0 r ji dx
r0 r
q
r0 r 2 2z0 2

R 2p
0

1
R




 9

R
>

erfc p
 R1 erfc pR
dr >
>
>

4F o
4F o
>
>
>
=
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
;
20

From the previous discussion of Eq. (8) and Fig. 5, we know that when
Ro < 0.13, the dimensionless temperature response can be the same
at different distance that the adjacent ring source away from the base
ring source center, i.e., the dimensionless temperature is a function
of Fo only. Fig. 13 re-illustrates this phenomenon by expressing the
dimensionless temperature response of RS0 due to ring sources adjacent to RS0. Therefore, after the relationship between H0sf RSj;i and Fo is
determined, the temperature response of the base ring source to a
random adjacent source can be obtained quickly and easily. We
named this fast algorithm the average method. Its speed is 100 times

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

GL

unit:m
measuring point
z= -1.2

z= -1.0
z=-1.5

RS0

RS1

RS3

RS2

RS4

RS5

RS6

RS7

RS8

(a) Soil temperature measuring points and the heat exchanger arrangement
Q
0.5 y

1y

1.5 y

2y

0
qr

(b) Constant heat injection over 2 years

Q
0.5 y

1y

1.5 y

2y

0
qr

(c) Variable heat injection over 2 years

Fig. 15. Illustration of the superposition principle in space and time.

faster than that of the integration method (45 s per result). The relative difference of H0sf RSj;0 is seen on the right axis of Fig. 13.

0
-2
z= -1.0m

[ ]

Here, the performances of the average and integration methods

are compared in terms of the temperature response of RSo due to
adjacent ring sources. As seen from the results in Fig. 14, the temperature variations obtained from the average method gradually
approach those of the integration method as the ring source moves
away from RSo, particularly from the sixth ring source. The results
were calculated under the conditions that k is 2.20 W m1 K1 and
q0r is 10 W. We noticed that the relative error is large at the beginning, but because the actual temperature response is quite small, a
large relative error can result from small differences. As time
elapses, the relative error of H0sf RSj;o is less than 0.1. It was conrmed from the comparison results that the average method can
be used to calculate the temperature inuence of multiple ring
sources.

-6
-8

-10

constant
boundary

adiabatic
boundary

-12
0

0.5

1.5

t [y]
(a) Constant heat injection rate
0
-2
z= -1.0m

-4

z= -1.2m

-6
-8

5. Application of the proposed method to the ground and

average tube surface temperature calculations

-10

5.1. Soil temperature variation due to multiple ring sources

-12

adiabatic
boundary

constant
boundary
0

As a simple application of the multiple ring source model in a

semi-innite medium, the ground temperatures of the heat exchanger shown in Fig. 15(a) were computed.
The ground temperature variation at depths of 1.0 and 1.2 m
below ground is presented in Fig. 16(a) and (b) and corresponds to
the heating injection rate in Fig. 15(b) and (c), respectively. The soil
properties used in the calculation are shown in Table 1, and the
heat ow of the ring source is assumed to be q0r 4 W(25.12 W/
ring). As seen from the gures, the soil temperature decreases during the heating period but recovers gradually when the heating
operation ends.

z= -1.2m

-4

[ ]

4.2. Examination of the fast calculation method

0.5

1.5

t[y]
(b) Variable heat injection rate
Fig. 16. Soil temperature variation at different depths during a 2-year period under
constant boundary and insulation boundary conditions.

5.2. Tube surface temperature response

Using the integration and average methods, the average tube
surface temperature in the arrangement of Fig. 17 was computed

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H. Li et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 44044414

(0,0,-1.5)
x

RS0

RS2

RS1

RS3

RS4

RS5

RS6

RS7

RS8

y
RS9

RS11

RS10

RS12

RS13

RS14

RS15

RS16

RS17

Fig. 17. Multiple-ring-source arrangement.

0.7

1.4

z= -1.5m

-2

average method
1.2

-4

integration method
1
0.8

-10

0.6

-12

0.5

RS14

-8

-6

0.6

RS9

0.4
0.3

RS15

0.2

0.4

0.1

-14
0.2

-16
-20

adiabatic

constant
boundary

-18

0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
-12
-14
-16
-18
-20

boundary

0.5

1
1.5
t [y]
(a) Constant heat injection

6E-16
-0.1

0
0

0.5

1.5

t [y]

Fig. 19. Comparison of the temperature response of RS0 due to RS9, RS14, and RS15
between the average method and the integration method as well as the relative
error.

z= -1.5m

constant
boundary
0

0.5

adiabatic
boundary

1
1.5
t[y]
(b) Variable heat injection

Fig. 18. Average virtual spiral tube surface temperature variation during a 2-year
period under constant boundary and insulation boundary conditions.

for two different heat extraction rates, as shown in Fig. 15(b) and
(c). The results are illustrated in Fig. 18 as well. To examine the
accuracy of the average method the temperature rises on the ring
source RSo caused by the virtual ring sinks RS9, RS14 and RS15 calculated using both methods were compared and plotted in Fig. 19.
The relative error is presented on the right side and was less than
1% after approximately 0.2 years.

6. Conclusions
This article presented a methodology with which a designer can
determine the size of a spiral heat exchanger. For this purpose, a
ring source model was developed to analyze the spiral heat exchanger heat response. Analytical solutions of the model were
developed for both an innite and semi-innite medium. The

validity of the model was conrmed by good agreement between

the results obtained experimentally and by the described methodology. Because the tube surface temperature is important in calculating the uid temperature inside the tube to determine the heat
exchanger size, the virtual tube surface temperature was calculated based on the ring source model. To make the calculation easier for a designer, a fast algorithm was developed to compute the
temperature inuence of the ring tubes for multiple congurations.
Moreover, this fast methodology can also be applied effectively for
large-scale congurations of spiral heat exchanger elds. The
authors believe that this methodology will greatly aid GSHP system engineers in designing the size of a spiral heat exchanger.

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