Numerical Validation of a New Analytical Solution for Helical (Earth-Basket) Type Ground Heat Exchangers

In this paper, we show that an analytical solution based on the Finite Line Source and G-function approach is both sufficiently fast and accurate for design calculations of ground heat exchangers with a complex (spiral) geometry. Detailed validations were performed for the steady-state and transient responses of analytical models with different time scales (10 h and 250 h). A comparison with a detailed computational fluid dynamics model (Ansys Fluent) and the analytical method for different boundary conditions showed a very good agreement (maximum root mean square error) smaller than 0.25 K.