Energy Geotechnics – Wuttke, Bauer & Sánchez (Eds)

© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-03299-6

Use underground reservoir in Taipei basin as cooling source

for air conditioners

H.J. Liao
Department of Civil and Construction and Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,
Taipei, Taiwan

Chihping Kuo
Department and Institute of Civil Engineering and Environmental Informatics,
Minghsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan

ABSTRACT: To use the underground reservoir in Taipei basin as the cooling source for air conditioners, a full
scale test was carried out in the campus of NTUST to cool down a 15 RT (Refrigeration Tons) air conditioner. Two
types of circulating water system were adopted: one is open system; the other is closed system. The open system
pumps up groundwater directly from the underground reservoir. It offers a constant temperature cooling source
for air conditioners (AC units). After doing heat exchange with AC units, the heated groundwater is discharged
back to the reservoir through an open well. Test results showed that the open system has a high cooling capacity
and was capable of keeping a 15 RT AC unit running continuously. Since no groundwater was pumped out
from the reservoir, ground subsidence was no concern for the open system. In comparison, the closed system
discharges the exhaust heat from the AC units through a closed loop pipe which is submerged in the groundwater
inside a well. The heat is transmitted to the underground reservoir by means of the circulating water in the pipe
loop. However, the heat transmission rate of the water saturated ground is limited and it was unable to dissipate
all the exhaust heat from the 15 RT AC unit. As a result, the heat quickly built up around the pipe loop. The
AC unit was shut down after running for only a few hours due to overheat. Obviously, the cooling capacity of
the closed system is much lower than that of the same well system used by the open system. The groundwater
pumping rate of the open system could also be adjusted using a PLC unit based on the actual cooling need of AC
unit to further cut down the running cost of water circulation. Numerical simulation also confirms that the heat
exchange rate of the closed system is much lower than the open system even though the flow rate of groundwater
is capable to carry the same amount of heat away.

1 INTRODUCTION accumulated in the basin where Taipei city locates.

1.1 Geographical and climatic conditions
Taipei Basin, located in the northernTaiwan and in sub-
tropical area, covers approximately an area of 243 km2
with the average elevation about 20 m above sea level.
It is surrounded by Datun volcanoes in the north;
by Linkou tableland in the west; and by hills and
mountains in the east and the south. Several major
rivers meander through the Taipei basin, namely Tan-
shui river, Keelung river, Xindian river and Dahan
river. Taipei city locates right in the Taipei basin. The
weather in summer is hot and humid. Over the past
decades, the mean daily surface temperature of Taipei
city had been rising from 28.0◦ C in 1960 to 29.5◦ C
in 2005 (Chen et al. 2007). In addition, the num-
ber of days with temperature above 35◦ C is increased
also. Air-conditioners have become a necessity to cool
down the indoors temperature in summer. Among the
air conditioners used, a large majority are air-cooled
type. In other words, most of the heat exhausted from
air-conditioners is discharged to the open air and
As a result, the air temperature is increased and makes
the heat island effect more serious (Hsieh et al. 2007).
1.2 Geological and groundwater conditions
Generally, sediments deposited from different rivers
are various: soft clays deposited from Keelung river;
gravels deposited from Xindian river; and sandy layers
deposited from Dahan river. Basically, the sandy and
clayey deposits in Taipei basin are underlaid by gravel
deposit. The thickness of gravel stratum increases
gradually from Xindian in the southeast to Tansui in
the northwest (Figure 1).
As estimated by Chen (2005), there is about 68.4
billion m3 of groundwater stored in the gravel stra-
tum of Taipei basin. Kuo and Liao (2011) studied
the directions and quantities of the groundwater flow
in the gravel stratum using the numerical software
MODFLOW. The direction of groundwater flow was
indicated by the vectors in Figure 2. The average quan-
tity of water budget is about 3.5 × 104 3 /day (cmd) for

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Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the basin profile.
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the basin profile.
the entire basin. The value of water budget in the study
area can be converted into the groundwater flux, i.e.,
groundwater velocity, of 13.0 cm/day. The measured
temperature of the groundwater changes from 24◦ C in
winter to 26◦ C in summer.
1.3 The alternative method
Since the groundwater resource is rich in the basin,
an alternative method for the cooling of AC units is
proposed here. To mitigate the above mentioned heat
island problem, the exhaust heat from the AC units
can be discharged to the underground reservoir in
the gravel stratum underlying Taipei city by means of
circulating groundwater/water system. Two types of
groundwater cooling system, namely the open system
and the closed system, can be used. The open sys-
tem consists of a group of integrated deep wells which
pump up cool groundwater and provide a steady cool-
ing source for ACs. After doing heat exchange with
the ACs, the heated water was discharged back to
the reservoir. During the circulation process, under-
ground reservoir only acts as a heat sink. All the
groundwater being pumped up is recharged back to the
underground reservoir immediately. So, no pumping
induced ground subsidence is expected. In compari-
son, the closed system brings the heat from AC units
down to the underground reservoir through the circu-
lating water in a closed loop pipe. No groundwater is
pumped up or discharged in the closed system.
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Figure 3. Closed type and open type cooling water circula-
tion.
The feasibility of using open system in Chingmei
gravel stratum has been verified through a field pump-
ing and recharging test and a numerical simulation
(Kuo and Liao 2012). These results were adopted and
implemented to the full scale groundwater circulation
test in a power transform station in the campus of
National Taiwan University of Science and Technol-
ogy (NTUST). Both open type and closed type systems
(Figure 3) were studied in full scale and the test results
are presented in this paper.
2 HYDROLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN NTUST
2.1 Location
NTUST locates at the southeast side of Taipei basin.As
shown in figure 2, flowing direction of groundwater is
generally from south to north at the NTUST site.
2.2 Underground soils profile and flowing of
groundwater
As shown in figure 4, the gravel stratum underneath the
NTUST site was located 39∼60 m below ground sur-
face. Inside the gravel stratum, there was a varve clay
layer (Wuku layer) of 4 m thick (GL −46∼ −50 m)
dividing the gravel layer into upper layer (Ching-
mei stratum) and lower layer (Banciao stratum). The
groundwater levels of the upper and lower layers were
located at GL −12.5 m and GL −10 m respectively
during the period of testing. Pumping test were per-
formed to estimate the transmissive parameter (T) and
it was about equal to 0.0003 m2 /sec. As shown in Fig-
ure 2, the direction of groundwater flow were measured
and matched the results from numerical simulation. Its
velocity also measured and is equal to 0.005 m/sec.The
temperature of the groundwater is about 23.5◦ C.

Figure 4. Aquifer layers under the NTUST test site.
3 METHODOLOGY
Both full-scale tests and numerical simulation of
closed type and open type cooling water circulation
were performed and compared in this study.
4 FIELD TEST AT NTUST SITE
4.1 Heat generating and exchanging devices
The power transform station in NTUST covers a floor
area of 124 m2 . Without air conditioning (ie., with only
natural air ventilation), the typical indoor temperature
rise in the station room was about 5◦ C over a 24 hour
period in summer.
To control the room temperature, a 15 RT (Refriger-
ation Tons) water-cooled air conditioner was installed.
The air conditioner had a nominal cooling capacity of
82000 BTU/hr (=24 kWh). It equipped with two scroll
type compressors. The nominal power consumption
of the compressor was 11A each at full load (=22A
when both compressors are operating). The compres-
sors operated in two modes: one compressor running
and both compressors running. The nominal cooling
water needed for this air conditioner was 196 liter/min
and the nominal operation temperature of the cooling
water was 37◦ C out from and 30∼32◦ C into the air
conditioner. Any increase in the temperature of cool-
ing water will decrease the cooling efficiency of the
compressor.
Because the manufacturer of air conditioner did
not recommend using untreated groundwater to cool
down the compressors directly. A plate heat exchanger
(PHE) unit was used here acting as a buffer unit
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to get the cool from the groundwater without let-
ting the groundwater flow into the air conditioner.
The PHE consisted of 17 heat exchange plates with
the heat exchange area of 1.92 m2 . The heat load of
this PHE unit was ∼80 kW. It was more than the
nominal heat exchange needed for this 15 RT air
conditioner (cooling capacity = 24 kWh). Inside the
PHE unit, the heated water from AC was separated
from the cool groundwater coming from the well
by corrugated stainless steel plates. As the heated
water flowing through the PHE unit, it exchanges heat
with cool groundwater inside the PHE. After that,
the exhaust heat from AC was brought down to the
gravel stratum by the circulating water. Two types of
circulation system were tested here: open system circu-
lates groundwater between aquifer and PHE via wells;
closed type circulation system circulates cooling water
in a closed loop pipe installed in the wells.
4.2 Open system
Two PVC standing pipes with a diameter of 254 mm
were installed in the well. One had openings at GL
−42∼−47 m (the upper well); the other had open-
ings at GL −51∼−58 m (the lower well) (Figure 5).
Upper well works as the pumping well while lower
well works as the discharging well. A submergible
pump of 5 hp (horse power) was installed at 36.5 m
below ground surface in the upper well to pump up
groundwater for the PHE unit. A rise pipe of 13 mm
diameter was connected to the submergible pump. The
rate of groundwater pumped up from the well was con-
trolled by the programmable logic controller (PLC)
and a rotation speed adjustable pump. The pumping
rate was adjusted based on the measured temperature
of the cooling water used to cool down the compres-
sors of AC. If the measured temperature was too high,
the pumping rate was increased to pump up more cool
water. The flow rate of circulating water was measured
with a GF Signet paddle-wheel flow sensor. The read-
ings from the flow sensor were sent to the PLC to
adjust the flow rate from the well. The water level in the
well was measured with vibration wire type pressure
transducers. The electricity consumption of AC and
submergible pump was measured using the electrical
Watt meter.
Figure 6 shows the measured temperatures from
various thermometers during a full day running period
of the air conditioner. The groundwater pumped up
from the gravel stratum maintained a constant temper-
ature of 23.5◦ C. The indoors temperature of the power
transform station was maintained at a constant value
of 17.5±0.5◦ C despite the outdoors temperature vary-
ing from 20◦ C in the early morning to around 30◦ C at
noon. The air temperature measured at the air outlet of
AC varied from 12.5 to 16.5◦ C. Occasionally (say, 10
times over a 24-hour period), the air temperature from
AC dropped to 7∼8◦ C. It is an indication that AC was
in the mode of both compressors running. However,
the time period for both compressors running was very
short. For most of the time, only one compressor was
 Figure 6. Temperatures measured from different sensors
during a full day operation.

Figure 5. Aquifer layers under NTUST campus.

running. In other words, the AC was able to operate in

an energy efficient mode under this open groundwater
circulation system and consumed less electricity.
Figure 6 also shows that the cooling water tempera-
ture on the AC side of the plate heat exchanger (PHE)
varies from 32∼33◦ C (to AC) to 33∼34◦ C (from AC).
It indicates that the compressors of AC were operat-
ing at a temperature of about 33◦ C compared with the
nominal operating temperature of around 37◦ C when
used with cooling tower system. Meanwhile, the tem-
perature of circulating groundwater to the PHE unit
on the well side maintained a steady 23.5◦ C (from the
well).
The flow rate of the circulating groundwater was
controlled by the PLC unit. Although the flow rate
jumped up and down between 50 and 200 liter/min
Figure 7. Schematic diagram of closed circulating water
in Figure 6, the accumulated flow volume provided to system for AC.
the PHE unit was steady. Compared with the nominal
flow rate (=196 liter/min) required when a cooling
4.3 Closed system
tower is used, the accumulated flow volume of cir-
culating groundwater was much lower than that of Unlike the open system, no groundwater is pumped up
cooling tower [∼120000 liters vs. 282240 liters per from the gravel stratum in the closed system to cool
day (=1440 min * 196l pm)]. It indicates that 23.5◦ C down the AC. Instead, water circulating in the closed
groundwater is capable to keep a 15RT air conditioner system is in a closed pipe (Figure 7). It exchanges
running for a full day using only about 40% of cooling the heat with the surrounding groundwater through
water compared with that of cooling tower. the outer wall of a double pipe. As mentioned earlier,

524
the test well was divided into upper well and lower
well. A 40 m long double pipe with an inner diameter
of 10 cm was installed in the upper well; while a 60 m
long double pipe with an inner diameter of 12.7 cm was
in the lower well. The double pipes in the upper and
lower wells were connected in series manner. Seamless
steel pipe was used for the outer pipe and a PVC pipe of
5 cm in diameter was used as the inner pipe. PVC pipe
was used because it has a better heat isolation property
to minimize the heat exchange inside the double pipe.
Outside the double pipe, there was a PVC pipe of 20 cm
in diameter. It was perforated at the depth of GL −41
to −45 m and GL −52 to −60 m to allow groundwater Figure 8. Temperature curves and heat exchange curves of
flow in and out of the PVC pipe easily. The annular AC for the closed system tested here (AC is off but the water
space between PVC pipe and well wall was back filled circulation pump is on during the cool down period).
with gravel. Only the submerged length of the double
pipe in the well was counted as the effective length for
heat exchange between heated circulating water and
ground/groundwater. At the time of the experiment,
the groundwater water level was at GL −25 m. So the
submerged length (the effective length) of the double
pipe was about total to 50 m.
The schematic diagram for the closed type system
is shown in Figure 7. The same PHE unit as the open
system was used. A pump with 3 hp and flow rate
of 150 liter/min was installed on the well side of the
PHE unit to circulate the water in the closed system to
and fro the ground. No submergible pump was used
Figure 9. Water temperature in and out from the PHE
in the closed system. The heated water flowing out unit (during the cool down period both the AC and water
from the PHE unit was pumped to the PVC inner pipe circulation pump were off).
of the double pipe first and back from the annular space
between PVC pipe and outer steel pipe. On its way more than the heat exchange capacity of the closed
back to PHE unit, the heated water exchanged the heat system, the water temperature will keep increasing
with ground/groundwater through the outer steel pipe. until the AC automatically shut down for safety reason;
The heat load of the PHE unit used here was equal otherwise, the water temperature will only increase to
to 70∼79 kW. But the heat exchange capacity of 50 m a certain value and then remains there.
long submerged pipe was to be determined from this
experiment.
As shown in Figure 8, the water temperatures on the 5 NUMERICAL SIMULATION
AC side and the well side of the PHE unit increased
quickly when AC was running. Obviously, the heat Based on the measured local groundwater flow, a
generated from the AC and the water pump was beyond heat transport model established from the SHEMAT
the heat exchange capacity of this closed circulation (Simulator for HEat and MAss Transport, Clauser
system. After running for about 4 hours, the tempera- 2003) program was used to simulate the heat trans-
ture of the cooling water on the AC side of the PHE unit mission behavior which resulted from two types of
reached about 53◦ C; while the temperature of circulat- circulating water system for AC. 3-D ms consist-
ing water on the well side reached about 46◦ C. The AC ing of 144 × 142 × 3 cells were used. In the cen-
was shut down automatically to protect the compressor ter area (2000 m × 2000 m), each cell represented an
from overheating. After AC shut down, the water circu- area of 1 m × 1 m; outside the center area, each cell
lation pump on the well side stayed running to keep the represented an area of 10 m × 10 m or 20 m × 20 m
water in the closed pipe flowing. Under this circum- depending on the locations. The upper and lower
stance, it took 16.5 hours for the water temperature layers were treated as an aquitard, and the middle
drop back to 30◦ C. But the temperature was unable to layer was a confined aquifer. However, SHEMAT
drop back to the initial 23.5◦ C (i.e., the initial water can only be used in a layer of constant thickness for
temperature when the test started). This was caused the current version. So, a mean value of 30 m was
by the heat generated from the operating water pump. adopted to approximate the thickness of the aquifer.
However, if the water circulation pump was shut down To simulate the flowing groundwater condition in the
and no more heat contributed to the closed system, the Chingmei stratum with the SHEMAT program, a line
temperature was able to drop back to 23.5◦ C after 24 of virtual pumping wells was placed at the effluent
hours (Figure 9). From the phenomenon observed, it boundary of the study area to provide a groundwa-
can be concluded that if the generated heat from AC is ter flow with velocity = 0.005 m/sec. Meanwhile, a

525
line of virtually discharging wells were placed at
the inflow boundary. The parameters used in this
model were as follows: effective porosity = 0.25 and
conductivity = 102 cm/sec (Freeze & Cherry 1979),
thermal capacity = 1.875 MJ/m3◦ K and conductivity
= 1.308 W/m◦ K (Tindall & Kunkel 1999).

5.1 Open system

A steady recharging well with 200 liter/min and 37◦ C
were placed in the central point (1000 m, 1000 m)
in the simulated model. The temperature change and
distribution is shown in Figure 10. At the first four
hours, the heat diffuses mainly radially around the
well. The influence of groundwater flow is not signif-
icant yet at this stage. After 24 hours, the heat center
still keeps diffusing radially around the well but some
heat has started to dissipate with the groundwater flow
to the downstream. After 168 hours (=1 week), the
heat is mainly dissipating along with the groundwa-
ter flow. After 240 hours (=10 days), the dissipating
heat is carried away mainly by the groundwater flow
to the downstream. Very little heat is transmitted lat-
erally to the direction other than the groundwater flow
direction.
The long-term simulation shows the same distribu-
tion pattern. The heat dissipation maintains steadily
toward the downstream of groundwater flow. In other
words, the exhausted heat discharging from the open
system will be carried away by the groundwater flow
and will not accumulate around the well. However,
due to the limitation of boundary setting, the distribu-
tion of exhaust heat extends to a distance of 2 km or
more. But it is understood that the exhaust heat from
the discharging well will dissipate to the surround-
ing water body as the heated water flows downstream
with groundwater flow. In fact, the numerical results
also show that the heat dissipation in vertical direc-
tion (depth direction) can be as far as 20 m. So, the
heat dissipation distance estimated from the numer-
ical analysis can only be treated as the upper bound
cases for the open system.

5.2 Closed system

Closed system means the well will not recharge water
into aquifer. Due to the limit of the numerical software,
the exhausted heat has to be transferred into equivalent
discharging well with steady flow in actual tempera-
ture. From Figure 8, the heat generation rate can be
estimated to be 0.25 kW/min (=50 kW/200 min). That
equals a steady flow with 7.3 liter/min and a 29.5◦ C Figure 10. 2-D view of simulated short-term to long-term
temperature difference. temperature change and distribution for the open system, the
Therefore, a steady discharging well with 7.3 axis presents distance in meter.
liter/min and 53◦ C were placed in the central point
(1000 m, 1000 m) in the simulated model. Without dis-
charging the water to the reservoir, the diffusion of heat to aquifer is much less. It means that most of the heat
(mainly by heat transmission) is very limited. At the is trapped inside the well and was unable to dissipate
first four hours, the heat diffuses radially and accumu- to the reservoir. In fact, it took up to 24 hours for
lates quickly around the well. Comparing to the open the exhaust heat to fully dissipate to restart the closed
system, the quantity of heat exhausted from this well system again.

526

Figure 11. 2-D view of simulated short-term temperature
change and distribution for the closed type circulation system,
the axis presents distance in meter.
6 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A full scale test on two types of cooling water circu-
lation system (open system and closed system) was
carried out to cool down a 15 RT (Refrigeration
Tons) air conditioner in the campus of NTUST. The
527
following conclusions can be drawn from the results
of this test.
1. The 23.5◦ C groundwater pumped up from the well
in the open system can provide a steady cooling
source for a 15 RT AC unit running all day long.
Using the same well, the heat discharged from the
closed system could not keep up with the heat gen-
erated from the AC. The water temperature in the
closed system kept increasing and caused the AC
to shut down due to overheat. The open system can
provide a much better cooling capacity to the AC
than the closed system
2. The submergible water pump in the open system
accounts for a large portion of power consumption.
By adjusting the pumping rate using a PLC unit
based on the cooling need of AC can reduce the
overall power consumption of the system.
3. Due to the slow heat exchange rate between
heated water and surrounding ground/groundwater
at NTUST campus, the cooling capacity of the
closed system is much lower than that of the same
well system used by the open system. An optimal
operation pattern for a closed system and its match-
ing airconditioners can be established in advance
through the temperature curve of circulation water
obtained from the field test or numerical analysis.
4. For the open system, the mineral contents of the
groundwater may cause scale or contamination
problem inside the PHE unit and the circulation
pipe. But it has a better heat dissipation capacity.
In comparison, water in the closed system has no
direct contact with groundwater. No contamination
in the pipeline has been experienced over the period
of this experiment.
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