Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Challenges (3rd SEEC)
18 –21 December, 2018, IIT Roorkee, India
THERMAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF EARTH-AIR-PIPE-HEAT EXCHANGER
SYSTEM WITH DIFFERENT BACKFILLING MATERIALS
Kamal Kumar Agrawal*
Mechanical Engineering Department,
Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur,
India, kamal.rightway@gamil.com
Sandeep Parmar
Mechanical Engineering Department,
Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur,
India, sandeepparmar1995@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Earth-air-pipe-heat exchanger (EAPHE) is a promising
passive technique for building heating and cooling, but it
required long pipes for heat transfer to/from soil and large
land area for installation of pipes. The required length of
pipe can be reduced by improving thermal properties of
soil at the vicinity of EAPHE pipe using different
backfilling materials. The purpose of the present study is
to compare the effect of different backfilling materials
(different types of soils and industrial waste materials) on
the performance of EAPHE systems. For this purpose, a
laboratory scale experimental setup of EAPHE system
(EAPHE simulator) has been developed and installed in a
controlled environment. Four backfilling materials viz.,
native soil of Ajmer city, black soil, granite powder, and
coarse particles of quartz have been considered for
experimentation. It was observed that after 6 hours of
continuous operation, the air temperature drop was of 9.1
°C for the native soil of Ajmer and 9.4 °C, 9.7 °C, 10.8 °C,
for black soil, granite powder and coarse particles of
quartz respectively.
Keywords: EAPHE simulator, Backfilling materials, Air
temperature drop, effectiveness, Pipe length
1. INTRODUCTION
The earth-air pipe heat exchanger (EAPHE) system is
geothermal energy based passive system which is used to
produce heating effects in winter and cooling effects in
summer. The sub-soil temperature at a depth of 3-4 from
the earth’s surface is almost constant all over the year and
equivalent to the annual mean temperature of that location.
This sub-soil at constant temperature can be used as heat
source or sink.
Paper No. 10
Rohit Misra
Mechanical Engineering Department,
Government Engineering College, Ajmer, India,
rohiteca@gmail.com
Ghanshyam Das Agrawal
Mechanical Engineering Department,
Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur,
India, gdagrawal2@gmail.com
In a typical EAPHE system, outdoor air is passed through
the buried pipes and heat is exchanged between flowing air
and subsoil. As a result, the temperature of the air at the
outlet of EAPHE is considerably cool down in summer and
get heated in winter. This outlet air from EAPHE system
can be directly used for cooling in summer and for heating
in winter season [1–4]. The working principle of EAPHE
system is depicted in Figure 1.
FIGURE 1: WORKING PRINCIPLE OF EAPHE
SYSTEM [5]
EAPHE system is a promising passive technique for
building heating and cooling, but it required long pipes for
heat transfer to/from soil and large land area for installation
of pipes. The required pipe length can be reduced by
increasing heat transfer rate between air and soil, by
enhancing soil thermal properties at the vicinity of the pipe.
Thermal conductivity is the primary property of the soil,
which influences the heat transfer and it mainly be
governed by moisture content, mineralogical composition
and density of the soil [6]. Soil thermal conductivity at the
vicinity of buried pipe can be upgraded by increasing
moisture in soil or by using thermally enhanced backfilling
materials [7]. Therefore Efforts should be made to enrich
the thermal properties of underground sub-soil.
Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Challenges (3rd SEEC)
18 –21 December, 2018, IIT Roorkee, India
Paper No. 10
Allan and Kavanaugh [8] utilized thermally enhanced
backfilling material for ground-source heat pump (GSHP)
system and found that by using thermally enhanced
backfilling material, the required bore length can be
reduced up to 37%. Cuny et al. [9] applied three kinds of
coating soils (viz. in-situ earth soil, sand and, sand-
bentonite mixture) at different parts of the buried EAPHE
pipe and found that mixture of sand-bentonite coating
provides better thermal performance compared to other
two types of coating. Sipio et al. [10–12] used five types of
thermally enhanced backfilling material (viz., sand 0-5
mm, sand 0-5 mm with 15% bentonite, fine sand 0-1 mm,
fine sand 0-1 mm with 15% bentonite and sandy clay) in (A) EMPTY SOIL CONTAINER
horizontal ground heat exchanger system to augment the
heat transfer rate. The study revealed that the fine sand 0-1
mm with 15% bentonite provides best results. Elminshawy
et al. [13] developed a laboratory scale EAPHE system for
experimental study and evaluated the impact of soil
compaction levels on performance of EAPHE system.
From the experimental results, it was observed that the
performance of EAPHE system improves by increasing
compaction level of soil.

Literature shows that the thermal performance of a ground

coupled heat exchanger may be improved by using
thermally enhanced material at the vicinity of the buried
pipe. However, very few experimental studies are available
for analysing the effect of locally available backfilling
materials on the performance of the ground heat exchanger
system. Therefore, there is a necessity to experimentally
investigate the impact of locally available backfilling
materials on the overall performance of EAPHE system.
The primary objective of the current experimental
investigation is to explore the effect of four different
locally available backfilling materials (viz., native soil of
Ajmer city, black soil, granite powder, and coarse particles
of quartz) on the performance of EAPHE system by
carrying out the experiments on laboratory scale
experimental setup.
2. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
A laboratory scale experimental setup of EAPHE system
was used to investigate the effect of different backfilling
materials on the thermal performance of EAPHE system.
The experimental set-up of EAPHE system was installed
inside a room (dimension of 3m×3 m×3m) of the
Mechanical Workshop at Government Engineering
College, Ajmer, India.
The laboratory scale experimental set up has a soil
container of dimension 2.4 m × 0.46 m × 0.46 m as shown
in Figure 2(a). The soil container has two compartments in
which two steel pipes of the inner diameter of 0.014 m and
length 2.5 m each, installed parallel as shown in figure 2(b).
(B) SOIL CONTAINER WITH TWO
COMPARTMENTS
FIGURE 2: SOIL CONTAINER FOR
LABORATORY SCALE EAPHE SYSTEM
In both the compartments initially ordinary sand was filled
up to the height of 13 cm from the bottom and after that a
10 cm layer of a backfilling material laid down in
compartment-1, while another backfilling material filled in
compartment-2.
After that RTDs (PT-100) sensors were installed in both
the pipes at different locations (0 m, 0.6 m, 1.2 m, 1.8 m
and 2.4 m from the inlet section of soil box) to measure the
temperature of air along the length of pipes. Temperature
sensors were also installed in the soil to measure the soil
temperature variation with time. After the installation of
the sensor, a layer of 10 cm thickness of a backfilling
material was laid down in compartment 1, and similarly, a
10 cm thick layer of another backfilling material was laid
down in compartment-2. After that, both the compartments
were filled further with sand up to the top of the soil
container. Finally, the air-pipes were connected with an air
heater, and air blower and RTD sensors were linked with a
data logger. The schematic of the laboratory scale
experimental setup is depicted in Figure 3.
Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Challenges (3rd SEEC)
18 –21 December, 2018, IIT Roorkee, India
Paper No. 10
of pipe Native Coarse
Black Granite
(m) soil of particles
soil powder
Ajmer of quartz
0 43.0 43.0 43.0 43.0
0.6 39.0 38.8 38.4 37.6
1.2 35.7 35.4 35.1 33.7
1.8 33.5 33.3 32.9 31.7
2.4 32.1 31.7 31.2 30.2

FIGURE 3: SCHEMATIC OF THE LABORATORY

SCALE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP TABLE 1 (B) : VARIATION IN AIR TEMPERATURE
ALONG THE LENGTH OF PIPE FOR FOUR
3. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE AND DIFFERENT BACKFILLING MATERIALS AFTER 6
MEASUREMENT HOURs OF OPERTION
Experimentations were carried out with different soil Air temperature (°C) after 6 hours of
Section
temperature (maintained by an air-conditioner unit in the operation
at length
room), different air inlet temperature (maintained by an air- of pipe Native Coarse
Black Granite
heater with a variac) and with different velocity of air (m) soil of particles
soil powder
(maintained by a blower with a variac) but for the present Ajmer of quartz
study, only one set of the parameter has been considered. 0 43.0 43.0 43.0 43.0
The present research is mainly based on a soil temperature 0.6 39.9 39.7 39.5 38.6
of 26 °C, the inlet air temperature of 43 °C and inlet air
1.2 37.1 36.9 36.6 35.4
velocity of 20 m/s.
1.8 35.2 35.0 34.7 33.4
The data has been recorded hourly basis, and the 2.4 33.9 33.6 33.3 32.2
measurement and recording of hourly data included the
temperature of the air at inlet and outlet of EAPHE pipes,
the temperature of air in the buried pipes at three different 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
locations and temperature of the soil at various locations.
From Table 1 it is observed that the drop in air temperature
EAPHE system was operated for six hours and after that
along the length of pipe is highest for coarse particles of
soil was allowed to get regenerated during the next 18
quartz, and minimum for the native soil of Ajmer even after
hours. Regeneration of soil was augmented by using an air
6-hours of continuous operation.
conditioner, and this air-conditioning unit also helped to
get the desired soil temperature. For experimentation, first From Table 1 and Figure 4, it is noticed that after 1-hour
of all, environmental air passed through the centrifugal of continuous operation, the total air temperature drop of
blower and then it passed through an air heater box (for 10.9 °C is obtained at the exit of pipe (2.4 m length) for the
achieving desired air temperature) and then finally the air native soil of Ajmer. However, for the coarse particles of
is supplied simultaneously through both the pipes of quartz almost the same air temperature drops of 11.3 °C is
EAPHE system. Thermal performance of EAPHE system obtained, at a pipe length of 1.8 m only. In the same way,
was evaluated in terms of temperature drop of air and it can also be seen that After 6 hours of continuous
effectiveness of EAPHE system. operation, the total air temperature drop of 9.1 °C is
obtained at the exit of pipe (2.4 m length) for the native soil
Air temperature variation along the length of pipe of
of Ajmer. However, for the coarse particles of quartz
EAPHE system (with soil at 26 °C, constant inlet air
approximately same air temperature drops of 9.6 °C is
temperature of 43 °C and velocity of 20 m/s) after 1 hour
obtained at a pipe length of 1.8 m only. Therefore it can be
and 6 hours is presented in Table 1(A) and (B).
concluded that the required length of pipe of EAPHE
TABLE 1 (A) : VARIATION IN AIR TEMPERATURE system can be reduced by more than 25% by using coarse
ALONG THE LENGTH OF PIPE FOR FOUR particles of quartz as backfilling material compared to
DIFFERENT BACKFILLING MATERIALS AFTER 1 native soil of Ajmer.
HOUR OF OPERTION
Section Air temperature (°C) after 1 hour of From table 1, it is also noticed that the other backfilling
at length operation materials (black soil and granite powder) also giving better
results compared to native soil of Ajmer. It is maybe
because of the higher thermal conductivity of black soil,
Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Challenges (3rd SEEC)
granite powder and coarse particle of quartz than the native
soil of Ajmer.
(A)
(B)
FIGURE 4: AIR TEMPERATURE VARIATION
ALONG THE LENGTH OF PIPE FOR
DIFFERENT BACKFILLING MATERIALS
AFTER (A) 1 HOUR AND (B) 6 HOURS
Apart from the air temperature drop along the pipe length,
thermal performance of EAPHE system can also be
evaluated using temperature effectiveness of the EAPHE
system. The effectiveness of an EAPHE system is defined
as the ratio of actual temperature drop along the length of
the pipe to the maximum possible temperature drop that
can be obtained through pipes [14]. Following equations
are used for calculation of effectiveness:
𝑇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑖𝑛 −𝑇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝜀=
𝑇𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑖𝑛 −𝑇𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙,𝑖𝑛
18 –21 December, 2018, IIT Roorkee, India
Paper No. 10
For the present study, the temperature effectiveness is
calculated hourly basis and for that outlet air temperature
is taken hourly, however, inlet air temperature, and pipe
wall temperature (initial soil temperature) was considered
constant 43 °C and 26 °C respectively. The obtained
results of effectiveness are presented in graphical form in
Figure 5.
FIGURE 5: PLOT BETWEEN EFFECTIVENESS
AND DURATION OF OPERATION
The average effectiveness of EAPHE system also
calculated by considering average outlet temperature of air
for 6 hours of operation and it was observed that the
effectiveness of EAPHE system is highest with coarse
particles of quartz (0.68), then followed by granite powder
(0.63), black soil (0.60), and native soil of Ajmer (0.59).
5. CONCLUSION
In the present study, thermal performance of EAPHE
system with four different backfilling materials has been
investigated experimentally for cooling operation. Thermal
performance of EAPHE system was assessed in terms of
air temperature drop along the length of pipe and
temperature effectiveness of EAPHE system. The primary
outcomes and observations of the study are:
1. After 6-hours of continuous operation, the air
temperature drop was 9.1 °C for the native soil of
Ajmer and 9.4 °C, 9.7 °C, 10.8 °C, for black soil,
granite powder and coarse particles of quartz
respectively.
2. After 1-hour of continuous operation, the
effectiveness of EAPHE system was 0.64, 0.66, 0.69,
and 0.75 for the native soil of Ajmer, black soil,
granite powder and coarse particles of quartz
respectively. However, after 6-hours of continuous
operation, the effectiveness of EAPHE system
reduced, and it became 0.53, 0.55, 0.57, and 0.63
respectively.
Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Challenges (3rd SEEC)
18 –21 December, 2018, IIT Roorkee, India
Paper No. 10
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