Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 44 (2015) 348–355

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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

Parametric study on thermal performance of earth-to-air heat

exchanger used for cooling of buildings
Mohammed Benhammou a,n, Belkacem Draoui b
a
Division Thermique & Thermodynamique, Unité de Recherche en Energies Renouvelables en Milieu Saharien, Centre de Développement des Energies
Renouvelables, Adrar, Algeria
b
Laboratoire d’Energétique en Zones Arides, Université de Bechar, Bechar, Algeria

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A transient one-dimensional model was developed for studying the thermal performance of earth-to-air
Received 20 July 2013 heat exchangers (EAHE) for summer cooling under the Algerian Sahara. The effect of extremities was also
Received in revised form taken into account. The model validation against both theoretical and experimental data of other
15 August 2014
researchers showed a good agreement. In addition, a detailed sensitive study was carried out in order to
Accepted 19 December 2014
investigate the influence of geometrical and dynamical parameters on the thermal performance of EAHE.
Results showed that the air outlet temperature decreases with increasing of pipe length but it increases
Keywords: with increasing of pipe cross section and air velocity. However, the daily mean efficiency increases when
Soil the length of pipe increases but it decreases when the cross section area of pipe or air velocity increases.
Heat exchanger
It is also observed that the coefficient of performance drops quickly with increasing of air velocity.
Buried pipe
Considering as reference the thermal performance of EAHE under steady state conditions, the
Fresh air
Efficiency investigation of Derating Factor reveals that the thermal performance of EAHE in transient conditions
Coefficient of performance is more influenced by the variation of operating duration, pipe diameter and air velocity.
& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
2. Description & principle of working. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
3. Mathematical modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
4. Derating Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
5. Model validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
6. Results & discussions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

1. Introduction drives the heating/cooling of ventilation air. The magnitude of heat

exchange between air and pipe is dependent on factors such as,
The Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) is a subterranean soil temperature, air temperature, pipe dimensions, air flow rate,
cooling system that consists in a length of pipe or network of pipe burial depth and soil and pipe thermal properties.
pipes buried at reasonable depth below the ground surface. The main advantages of EAHE system are its simplicity, high
Ventilation air supply is passed through the pipes and the cooling and pre-heating potential, low operational and mainte-
difference in temperature between the pipe surface and the air nance costs, saving of fossil fuels and related emissions. Pre-heated
fresh air supports a heat recovery system and reduces the space
heating demand in winter. In summer, in combination with a good
n thermal design of building, the EAHE can eliminate the need for
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: benhamou71@yahoo.fr (M. Benhammou), active mechanical and air-conditioning units in buildings, which
bdraoui@yahoo.com (B. Draoui). will result in a major reduction in electricity consumption of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.12.030
1364-0321/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Benhammou, B. Draoui / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 44 (2015) 348–355
Nomenclature
COP coefficient of performance
Cp specific heat (J/kg 1C)
D diameter (m)
hc convective heat transfer coefficient (w/m² K)
L pipe length (m)
M mass (kg)
ṁ mass flow rate of air through the buried pipe (kg/s)
Pr Prandtl number
Re Reynolds number
T temperature (K)
U overall heat transfer coefficient (w/m² K)
v air velocity (m/s)
Greek letters
η mean efficiency
building if the EAHE is designed well. A literature review reveals
that various theoretical and experimental studies [1–8] have been
conducted on the EAHE under different climatic conditions in
order to improve its cooling and heating potential. Among these
works, it is useful to quote the following:
Al-Ajmi et al. [9] developed an analytical model of earth-to-air
heat exchanger (EAHE) for predicting the air outlet temperature
and cooling potential of these devices in a hot and arid climate.
In this model, the thickness of disturbed soil is taken equal to
the radius of buried pipe and the thermal resistance of pipe
material is neglected. After validation with other published experi-
mental works, this model was integrated within the TRNSYS
environment in order to investigate the thermal performance of
typical dwelling coupled to an EAHE in Kuwait climatic conditions.
It was found that the EAHE can provide 30% of cooling energy
demand in the summer season. A new design of passive cooling
system consisting in a solar chimney (SC) joined together with an
EAHE was carried out by Maerefat et al. [10]. The results showed
that this system with a proper design can provide a thermally
comfortable indoor environment for a large number of hours in
the scorching summer days. Another study was conducted by
Nayak et al. [11] on a different configuration formed from a
photovoltaic-thermal \collector (PV/T) and an EAHE for green-
house heating. It was observed that the greenhouse inside tem-
perature increased by around 7-8 1C during winter season at night.
Yildiz et al. [12] studied an experimental system for greenhouse
cooling consisting in an earth-to-air heat exchanger assisted by a
solar photovoltaic system (PV). The experiment was performed at
the Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.
Using a one-dimensional transient analytical model, Cucumo
et al. [13] studied the influence of burial depth on the thermal
performance of EAHE systems. This model permitted also to
predict the temperature fields of air inside the pipe and of soil
surrounding the buried pipe, taking into account the thermal
perturbation of upper free surface and the possible phase change
(condensation) in the buried pipes. A similar model was developed
by Su et al. [14] for studying a deeply EAHE used for building
energy saving. The proposed model was validated against experi-
mental data. Chel et al. [15] performed a thermal analysis of vault
roof building integrated with an earth-to-air heat exchanger
(EAHE). Experimental results showed that the room air tempera-
ture during winter increased by about 5–15.8 1C compared to the
outdoor air temperature while it decreased within the same
interval during summer months.
349
Δp pressure drop (Pa)
Δx spatial increment in the flowing direction (m)
ρ density (kg/m3)
λ thermal conductivity (w/m 1C)
Subscripts
a air
amb ambient air
(e) at the inlet of EAHE
i interior
o outside
s disturbed soil
soil undisturbed soil
(s) outlet
t pipe
tot total
Furthermore, a transient three-dimensional heat transfer
model based on the coupled conservation equations of energy
for the soil and the circulating air is presented by Gauthier et al.
[16] for studying the thermal behavior of soil heat exchanger-
storage systems (SHESSs) applied to reducing the energy con-
sumption of greenhouses. The effect of various design and operat-
ing parameters on the performance of SHESSs was also
investigated. Tittelein et al. [17] presented a numerical model for
earth-to-air heat exchangers integrating the response factors
method and a finite elements approach for resolving the tow-
dimensional conduction problem. Kumar et al. [18,19] developed
two different numerical models; one based on Finite Difference
Method for estimating the energy saving potential of earth-air
heat exchanger system. It was taken into account the humidity
variations of circulating air in this model. The second leaned on
the concept of Artificial Neural Network aims to conceive a
computer design tool which can help the designer to evaluate
any aspect of earth-to-air heat exchanger and behavior of final
configuration. Zhang et al. [20] developed a numerical method
consisting in an Artificial Neural Network based on Heat Convec-
tion (ANN- HC) algorithm for predicting the local average Nusselt
Numbers along the pipe. Then this algorithm was integrated with
a transient three-dimensional heat transfer model based on finite
element analysis for studying the heat conduction in the ground
domain surrounding the EAHE.
In addition, Thiers et al. [21] presented a study conducted on
two-dwelling passive building in Formerie (North-West of France)
using the dynamic simulation software COMFIE in which a new
developed module has been integrated in order to account for the
implemented ventilation system, including a heat recovery unit
and an earth-to-air heat exchanger. Lee et al. [22] developed a new
module which is integrated and implemented in the EnergyPlus
program for the simulation of EAHE and a sensitive analysis was
carried out to investigate the effect of design parameters such as
pipe radius, pipe length, air flow rate and pipe depth on the overall
performance of earth tube under various conditions during cooling
season. Bansal et al. [23] and Vaz et al. [24] carried out numerical
studies based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) by the help
of FLUENT environment for predicting the heating and cooling
capacity of earth-air-pipe heat exchanger systems.
The main objective of this article is to present an investigation
of earth-to-air heat exchanger (EAHE) used for cooling of building
under the climatic conditions of Algerian Sahara. This study was
performed on July where the demand of energy for cooling is at
350 M. Benhammou, B. Draoui / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 44 (2015) 348–355

For the buried pipe:

dT t ðjÞ
M t Cpt ¼ ðπDi ΔxÞU a;t ðT a  T t ðjÞÞ  ðπDo ΔxÞU t;s ðT t ðjÞ  T s ðjÞÞ ð2Þ
dt
The parameters Tt, Cpt, Ut,s and Do indicate respectively the pipe
temperature, the thermal capacity of pipe, the overall heat transfer
coefficient between the pipe and the disturbed soil and the
outside diameter of pipe.
For the disturbed soil:
dT s ðjÞ
M s Cps ¼ ðπDo ΔxÞU t;s ðT t ðjÞ  T s ðjÞÞ ðπDs ΔxÞU soil ðT s ðjÞ  T soil Þ
Fig. 1. Representative diagram of earth-to-air heat exchanger integrated with a dt
building. ð3Þ
With:

the peak. A transient one-dimensional analysis was developed in 1 1 D ðD þ De Þ=2

¼ þ i ln i ð4Þ
order to investigate the thermal performance of EAHE. It is taken U a;t hc 2 U λt Di
also into account the effect of pipe extremities. Next, a parametric
1 De De De ðDe þ Ds Þ=2
study was also carried out for studying the effect of geometrical ¼ ln þ ln ð5Þ
U t;s 2 U λt ðDi þ De Þ=2 2 U λs De
and dynamical parameters on the output parameters of EAHE such
as the air outlet temperature, the daily mean efficiency and the 1 Ds Ds
coefficient of performance. ¼ ln ð6Þ
U sol 2 U λs ðDe þ Ds Þ=2
where, Tsoil, Usoil and Ds are respectively the temperature of
undisturbed soil and the overall heat transfer coefficient by
2. Description & principle of working conduction between the disturbed and undisturbed soil and the
outside diameter of disturbed soil. Besides, λt, λs and hc designate
The heat exchanger is formed from a pipe in PVC (polyvinyl respectively the thermal conductivity of pipe, the thermal con-
chloride) buried in the ground. The buried pipe has a length of L, ductivity of soil and the coefficient of heat transfer by convection
an interior diameter of Di and a thickness of 5 mm. The principle between the circulating air and the buried pipe.
of working can be explained as follows: First, the hot outdoor air is The convective heat transfer coefficient between the flowing air
pumped through the buried pipe with a help of an adequate fan. and the buried pipe is given by the following correlation [12]:
Afterwards, during its passage, air loses an amount of heat in
hc ¼ 0:023Re0:8 Pr0:33 λa =Dh ð7Þ
exchange with the pipe and it becomes cooled as it progresses.
Finally, the cooled air is injected into the building (Fig. 1). The pressure drop in the system is calculated with the help of
following equation:


L v2
Δp ¼ f þ 2  1:3 U ρ ð8Þ
3. Mathematical modeling Dh 2
where:
The modeling of earth-to-air heat exchanger is established in
such a way that the following hypotheses are respected: f ¼ ð1:82 log ðReÞ 1:64Þ  2 ð9Þ
The mean efficiency of earth-to-air heat exchanger for a period

A one-dimensional problem is considered. τ is calculated by the following equation:

Physical and thermal properties of air are constant and inde- R τ ðeÞ
pendent of temperature. ðT a  T ðsÞ
a Þ Udt
ηmean ¼ R 0τ ðeÞ ð10Þ

Soil surrounding the pipe is homogeneous and its physical and 0 ðT a  T sol Þ U dt
thermal properties are assumed to be constant and not influ- In the same way, the mean coefficient of performance for a
enced by the presence of pipe. period τ is given as follows:
R
_ a 0τ ðT ðeÞ
mCp ðsÞ
a  T a Þ Udt
It is considered a pipe in PVC with a length of L, and inside and COP ¼ ð11Þ
_
ΔpVτ=η Fan
outside diameters of Di and Do respectively. The ambient air flows
through the buried pipe with a mass flow rate of ṁ. Ds and Tsoil The parameter ηFan refers to the output of fan electromechani-
indicate the outside diameter of disturbed soil and the soil cal conversion.
temperature at the burial depth respectively. Resolving analytically the differential Eq. (1), the air outlet
According to the flowing direction, the pipe is cut up into many temperature for a layer (j) is given as follows:
layer of identical length Δx. In each layer, the temperatures of air, 
πDi ΔxU a;t

pipe and disturbed soil are uniform. For a layer (j), the energy T aðsÞ ðjÞ ¼ T t ðjÞ þ ðT ðeÞ
a ðjÞ T t ðjÞÞ Ue
_ a
mCp ð12Þ
balance is written by the following manner: For each step of time, the air outlet temperature in layer (j) is
For the flowing air: considered as the air inlet temperature for the next layer (j þ1)
and so on; so much as (j) is lower than the number of layers (N).
dT a
_ a
mCp ¼  ðπDi ÞU a;t ðT a  T t ðjÞÞ ð1Þ Using the implicit Finite Difference Method to discretizate the
dx
differential, the resulting linear system is resolved by Jordan's
where Ta, Cpa and ṁ are respectively the air temperature, the algorithm.
specific heat capacity of air and the mass flow rate of air. The In order to take into account the effect of pipe extremities, the
parameter Ua,t indicates the overall heat transfer coefficient air temperature must be corrected before the air enters into
between the air and the pipe. the horizontal pipe and also after it leaves the horizontal pipe.
 M. Benhammou, B. Draoui / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 44 (2015) 348–355 351

For that, it is used the following equation which should be by the present model are in good agreement with the experi-
resolved by the algorithm of Runge-Kutta for each step of time: mental measurements and the maximal relative error is less than
dT a 5% for air velocity higher than 2m/s. In addition, it is observed an
_ a
mCp ¼  U tot ðT a T soil ðxÞÞ ð13Þ error lower than 10% when the air circulating inside the buried
dx
pipe is pumped with a velocity of 2m/s. Therefore, it can be
With: concluded that the EAHE model is good enough for predicting the
1 1 1 De 1 Ds thermal performance of EAHE.
¼ þ ln þ ln ð14Þ
U tot hc Uðπ UDi Þ ð2 U λt U πÞ Di ð2 Uλs UπÞ De

6. Results & discussions

4. Derating Factor
Thermal performance of EAHE system is basically evaluated in
terms of cooling amount which can be produced. EAHE operating
under steady state condition is taken as reference case for
comparing the thermal performance of EAHE in transient condi-
tions. Temperature drops obtained under steady state and tran-
sient conditions are used to determine the Derating Factor which
is defined as the ratio of deterioration in thermal performance for
transient conditions to the thermal performance for steady state
conditions [25]. It can be expressed as an equation as follows:
ðT in  T out Þtransient
DF ¼ 1 
ðT in  T out Þsteadystate
where Tin and Tout are respectively the air temperature at the
inlet and outlet of earth-to-air heat exchanger.
Physical significance of Derating Factor is that it gives a broad
comparison between thermal performance of EAHE operating
under steady state and transient conditions. It is noted that the
drop in air temperature under steady state conditions is evaluated
assuming the soil surrounding the buried pipe at constant
temperature.
Derating Factor takes values between zero and one. It vanishes
(DF ¼0) when the air outlet temperature in transient conditions is
equal to the air outlet temperature in permanent conditions and it
This earth-to-air heat exchanger (EAHE) is operated under
the meteorological conditions of Adrar town (Southern Algeria).
In order to examine the cooling potential of such system, it is
chosen as a period of study the month of July where the demand
in air-conditioning is maximal.
The pipe of heat exchanger is in PVC and its thickness is 5 mm.
The soil temperature at burial depth is 22.27 1C. The time (t) is
expressed in hours and it spreads on a period of 24 hours. The air
inlet temperature is equal to the air ambient temperature (Tamb).
The physical and thermal properties of air, pipe and soil are
assumed constant and their values are given in (Table 2) and the
parameters of EAHE used in this simulation are illustrated in
(Table 3).
For the effect of pipe length, it is shown in (Fig. 2) that the air
outlet temperature decreases with the increase of pipe length. For
example, it is observed for an air inlet temperature of 29 1C a
reduction of 2 1C in the air outlet temperature when the pipe
length changed from 10 to 30m. However, the reduction rate is not
constant and it also decreases with the pipe length. In fact, it is
obtained a reduction of 1 1C only for an increase of 50 to 70 m in
the pipe length. Besides, for a given length, the reduction in the air
Table 2
Physical and thermal properties of materials used in this study [23].

is equal to unity (DF ¼1) when the air outlet temperature in Material Density (kg/m3) Thermal capacity Thermal conductivity
transient condition is equal to the air inlet temperature. More this (J/kg1C) (w/m1C)
factor is close to zero; more the thermal performance of EAHE
under transient conditions is comparable to the thermal perfor- Air (300k) 1.1774 1005.7 0.02624
Soil 2050 1840 0.52
mance of EAHE in steady state conditions.
PVC 1380 900 0.16

5. Model validation
Table 3
The model presented in this study was validated against Parameters of EAHE used in this simulation.
theoretical and experimental results carried out by Bansal et al.
Parameter Values of reference
[23] who developed a transient and implicit model based on
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) inside the FLUENT environ- Pipe length (L) 50 m
ment to predict the thermal performance and cooling potential of Pipe inside diameter (Di) 30 cm
EAHE systems. The experiment was performed on April 08, 2009 Pipe thickness 5 mm
Air velocity (V) 2 m/s
at Ajmer, India. The detail of comparison was illustrated in
Temperature of undisturbed soil 22.27 1C
(Table 1). As can be seen, the air outlet temperatures predicted

Table 1
EAHE model predictions versus the experimental and theoretical results of Bansal et al. [23].

EAHE parameters L ¼ 23.42; Di ¼ 15 cm; Tsoil ¼26.7 1C (EAHE with a pipe in PVC)

Air velocity (m/s) Ambient temperature (1C) Air outlet temperature (1C)

Experimental data of Bansal [23] Theoretical results of Bansal [23] Results of present model

Tout (1C) Tout (1C) Relative error (%) Tout (1C) Relative error (%)

2 43.4 33.1 29.3 11.48 30.05 9.22

3 42.5 33.1 29.7 10.27 31.66 4.34
4 42.3 33.5 30.6 8.65 33.04 1.37
5 42.2 34.2 31.1 9.06 34.10 0.29
352 M. Benhammou, B. Draoui / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 44 (2015) 348–355

Tsoil increases. However, the rise in the pressure losses increases the
45 electric power consumed by the fan and it results in a reduction in
Tamb
(s) the coefficient of performance.
Ta for L=10m
(s)
In (Fig. 4), it is shown the variation of Derating Factor according
40 Ta for L=20m to the pipe length. It is observed that the Derating Factor drops as
(s)
Ta for L=30m function of pipe length. For a variation in the pipe length from 30
Temperature (°C)

(s)
Ta for L=40m to 50 m, it is found a reduction in the Derating Factor from 18.22 to
35
(s) 12.23% for an operating duration of 3 hr and a reduction from
Ta for L=50m
21.94 to 15.23% for an operating duration of 12 hr. When the
30 duration of operation changes from 3 to 12 hr, the Derating Factor
rises from 12.23 to 15.23% for a pipe length of 50 m. This means
that the thermal behavior of EAHE having larger pipe length and
25 operating under transient conditions for a short duration is close
to that of EAHE under permanent conditions because a rise in the
pipe length leads to an increasing of exchange surface between the
20 flowing air and the surrounding soil but locally, the exchange
0 5 10 15 20 surface remains constant so that the gradient of temperature
Time (hours) between the air and the soil is constant along the buried pipe.
Fig. 2. Effect of pipe length on the air outlet temperature. Concerning the effect of pipe diameter, (Fig. 5) reveals that the
air outlet temperature increases as function of pipe diameter. It is
observed a change from 22.3 1C to 23 1C when the pipe diameter
rises from 10 to 30 cm and the ambient temperature is 29 1C.
0.9 0.30 Indeed, a rise of pipe diameter involves an increasing of air

0.8 0.28
35
0.7 After 1 hr
0.26
After 3 hr
Mean efficiency

30
After 6 hr
0.6
0.24 After 12 hr
COP

After 24 hr
25
Derating Factor (%)

0.5
0.22
20
0.4
0.20
15
0.3
0.18
0.2 10
20 40 60 80 100
Pipe length (m) 5

Fig. 3. Evolution of mean efficiency and coefficient of performance according to the

pipe length. 0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Pipe length (m)
temperature is more important when the air inlet temperature is Fig. 4. Variation of derating factor according to the pipe length for different hours
higher. It is found that for a pipe length of 50m, the reduction in of operation.
the air temperature is 5 1C for an air inlet temperature of 29 1C and
11 1C for an inlet temperature 44 1C. This can be interpreted by the
50
fact that an increase in the pipe length causes an increase in the
exchange surface and the amount of heat lost by the circulating air
is proportional to the heat exchange surface. Hence, the tempera- 45
ture of air will decrease more.
(Fig. 3) represents the variation of daily mean efficiency as well
40
Temperature (°C)

as the coefficient of performance according to the pipe length. It is

easy to see that the daily mean efficiency increases with the
increase of pipe length while the coefficient of performance 35
decreases. It is found a diminishing of 10.5% in the coefficient of
performance and a rise of more than 142% in the daily mean
30
efficiency when the pipe length rises from 10 to 30m. Likewise, it
is observed a decreasing of 15.7% in the coefficient of performance
and a rise of only 13.8% in the daily mean efficiency corresponding 25
to a change of pipe length from 50 to 70m.
The reason is that a rise in the pipe length increases in the same
20
time the exchange surface between the flowing air and the buried
0 5 10 15 20
pipe and the pressure losses in the system. The increasing of
Time (hours)
exchange surface involves a rise of temperature gradient between
the inlet and the outlet of EAHE so that the daily efficiency Fig. 5. Influence of pipe diameter on the air outlet temperature.
 M. Benhammou, B. Draoui / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 44 (2015) 348–355 353

thermal inertia so that the heat lost by the flowing air will
diminish. Hence, the air outlet temperature increases.
The influence of pipe diameter on the daily mean efficiency and
the coefficient of performance is represented in (Fig. 6). As it can
be seen, the daily efficiency as the coefficient of performance
drops with increasing of pipe diameter. It is found a reduction
from 1.7 to 0.5 and from 0.98 to 0.67 in the coefficient of
performance and the daily efficiency respectively for a rise from
10 to 30 cm in the pipe diameter.
Moreover, a rise of pipe diameter causes a reduction of pressure
losses and an increase in the thermal inertia of air but the
reduction in the daily cooling potential of EAHE due to the
increasing of air thermal inertia is dominant and this is manifested
by a reduction in the coefficient of performance.
Influence of pipe diameter on the Derating Factor is illustrated
in (Fig. 7). It is mentioned that the Derating Factor is proportional
to the pipe diameter and the duration of operation but for the long
operating duration, the curves become almost superposed. For a
change in the pipe diameter from 10 to 30 cm, it is found a rise in
Derating Factor from 0.21 to 9.45% for an operating duration of
1 hr and a change from 0.68 to 15.5% is obtained for an operating
duration of 24. Besides, a change of only 0.33% is evaluated when
1.0
the duration of operation increases from 12 to 24 hr for a pipe
diameter of 50 cm. According to the above analysis, it can be
concluded that the thermal performance of EAHE with larger pipe
diameter deteriorates more than the EAHE with smaller pipe
diameter due to lesser amount of heat transferred by the circulat-
ing air to the surrounding soil.
(Fig. 8) shows the evolution of air outlet temperature with the
air velocity. It is found that the air outlet temperature increases
with increasing of air velocity. For an ambient temperature of
29 1C, a rise of 1.2 1C is observed when the air velocity changed
from 1 to 3 m/s but the rise becomes 5.59 1C when the ambient
temperature increases to 44 1C for the same change in the air
velocity. This is due to the fact that an increasing of air velocity
induces an increasing of air thermal inertia and therefore, the heat
transferred by the air to the soil reduces.
Influence of air velocity on the daily mean efficiency and the
coefficient of performance is illustrated in (Fig. 9). It is found that
the daily efficiency drops as function of air velocity. A reduction of
31.6% is evaluated when the air velocity varied from 1 to 3 m/s.
On the other hand, the coefficient of performance drops more
rapidly with the air velocity. A drop from 4.09 to 0.15 is found
when the air velocity rises from 1 to 3 m/s. This is due to the
increase of energy provided for air blowing induced by the
2.0 increase of pressure losses in the system.

0.9

1.5 Tsoil
45
0.8 Tamb
Mean efficiency

(s)
Ta for V=1m/s
0.7
COP

40 (s)
1.0 Ta for V=2m/s
Temperature (°C)

(s)
Ta for V=3m/s
0.6
(s)
35 Ta for V=4m/s
(s)
0.5 0.5 Ta for V=5m/s

30
0.4
0.0
10 20 30 40 50 25
Pipe diameter (cm)
Fig. 6. Effect of pipe diameter on the daily mean efficiency and the coefficient of
20
performance.
0 5 10 15 20
Time (hours)
Fig. 8. Variation of air outlet temperature as function of air velocity.

25
After 1 hr
3.0
After 3 hr
After 6 hr 0.8
20 After 12 hr
2.5
Derating Factor (%)

After 24 hr
0.7

2.0
Mean efficiency

15
0.6
COP

1.5
10 0.5

1.0

0.4
5
0.5

0.3

0 0.0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 2 4 6 8 10
Pipe diameter (cm) Air velocity (m/s)
Fig. 7. Variation of derating factor versus the pipe diameter for different hours of Fig. 9. Evolution of mean efficiency and coefficient of performance as function of
operation. air velocity.
354 M. Benhammou, B. Draoui / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 44 (2015) 348–355

50 a rise in Derating Factor from 9.46% to 12.23% corresponds to a

After 1 hr variation of operating duration from 1 hr to 3 hr. However, the rate
45
After 3 hr of increasing in Derating Factor becomes smaller for the long
After 6 hr duration of operation. A change of only 0.27% was obtained when
40 After 12 hr
After 24 hr
the duration of operation varies from 12 hr to 24 hr. This is due to
35 the fact that the surrounding soil starts to heat up slowly with
Derating Factor (%)

time but its temperature becomes almost constant after a long

30 duration of operation. In other words, the thermal performance of
EAHE deteriorates with time of operation but the rate of deteriora-
25
tion remains constant for long time of operation.
20

15 7. Conclusion

10 In this work, it is presented a study conducted on an earth-to-

air heat exchanger for cooling of buildings under the climatic
5
conditions of Algerian Sahara. Using a transient one-dimensional
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
model, an investigation of influence of dynamical and geometrical
parameters on the thermal performance of EAHE is performed.
Air velocity (m/s)
In this model, the effect of extremities is taken into account. After
Fig. 10. Evolution of derating factor versus the air velocity for different hours of simulation of studied system and analysis of obtained results, the
operation. following conclusions are carried out:

The drop in air temperature is greater when the air inlet

16 temperature is higher.

The air outlet temperature is smaller for a larger pipe length of
15 EAHE whereas it increases with the increase of pipe cross
section and air velocity.

The daily mean efficiency increases with increasing of pipe
14
length but it decreases when the pipe cross section or the air
Derrating Factor (%)

velocity rises.
13
The coefficient of performance drops when the pipe geometric
dimensions or the air velocity increase and in this last case, it
12
drops very quickly. Therefore, it is preferable to use a network
of parallel pipes remote sufficiently to avoid their interaction
in order to reduce the increase of pressure drop in the system
11
due to a higher rate of ventilation.

The thermal performance of EAHE in transient conditions is
10 more influenced by the increase of duration of operation, pipe
diameter and air velocity compared to the performance of
EAHE in steady state condition. For EAHE having larger pipe
9
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
length, the thermal performance in transient conditions is
close to that in permanent conditions when it operates during
Duration of operation (hr)
a short time.
Fig. 11. Evolution of derating factor according to the duration of operation.

Furthermore, the effect of air velocity on the Derating Factor is References

represented in (Fig. 10). It is found that the Derating factor is
proportional to the air velocity. It is evaluated a rise from 6.38 to
17.28 when the air velocity increases from 1 to 3 m/s for an
operating duration of 1hr. For the same change in the air velocity,
it is found a rise from 10.29 to 27.27% for an operating duration of
12 hr. For a fixed value of air velocity of 2m/s, the increase in the
Derating Factor is from 12.29 to 18.26% and from 19.69 to 20.01%
corresponding to a change in the operating duration from 1 to 6 hr
and from 12 to 24 hr respectively. This can be explained by the fact
that increasing of air rate flow due to increasing of air flow velocity
leads to deterioration in the thermal performance of EAHE under
transient conditions. In fact, the soil in the immediate vicinity of
buried pipe heats up more rapidly with increasing air velocity and
then, the gradient of temperature decreases. Therefore, the
amount of heat lost by the air will reduce.
(Fig. 11) shows the variation of Derating Factor as function of
operating duration. It is observed that the Derating Factor
increases with increasing of duration of operation. It is found that
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