Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115

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Energy & Buildings

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

Field investigations to determine the thermal performance of earth air

tunnel heat exchanger with dry and wet soil: Energy and exergetic
analysis
Rohit Misra a, Sanjeev Jakhar b,∗, Kamal Kumar Agrawal c, Shailendra Sharma d,
Doraj Kamal Jamuwa a, Manoj S. Soni e, Ghanshyam Das Agrawal c
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, Government Engineering College, Ajmer, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sobhasaria Group of Institutions, Sikar, India
c
Mechanical Engineering Department, MNIT, Jaipur, India
d
Mechanical Engineering Department, M.B.M. Engineering College, Jodhpur, India
e
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Pilani Campus, Rajasthan, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Earth air tunnel heat exchanger (EATHE) systems are inadequate to meet the thermal comfort require-
Received 10 November 2017 ments in semi-arid regions as they require large pipe lengths. The effectiveness and performance of such
Revised 31 March 2018
system can be increased by increasing soil moisture content, making as wet soil configuration. In the
Accepted 16 April 2018
present work, the thermal performance of the EATHE system with dry and wet soil has been evaluated
Available online 2 May 2018
during the peak summer season. Further, the thermal behavior of these two EATHE systems has been
Keywords: compared on the basis of temperature of air flowing through buried pipes at different sections along
Earth air tunnel heat exchanger the length. For the same a theoretical model is developed and validated with experimental results and
Dry soil found in good agreement with an error ranging from 2.44% to 10.85%. Moreover, the exergetic analy-
Wet soil sis has been carried outto investigate the work potential and scope of maximum utilization of energy.
Exergy analysis Results reveal that thepipe length can be reduced by 12–14 m with wet EATHE system as compared to
dry EATHE system for the same cooling performance. The second law analysis shows that the maximum
exergetic efficiency is 52.25% and 53.18% for dry and wet soil EATHE systems respectively.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction used alternatively [1]. One of the passive heating/cooling technolo-

gies based on the geothermal principle is earth air tunnel heat ex-
In the semi arid regions, there is a requirement to achieve ther- changer (EATHE). In EATHE system, during summer, hot surround-
mal comfort in the buildings with minimizing energy consumption. ing air is passed through the buried pipes. When air flows through
In most of the buildings the thermal comfort is generally main- the pipes, heat is transferred from hot air to the soil. As a result
tained by air conditioning. The most common technology of air the outlet temperature of EATHE is much lower than the ambient
conditioning is vapor compression technique, operated by electric temperature. This cooled air from EATHE could be used for the
motors. It consumes a huge amount of electrical power which is space cooling directly or could be hybridized with conventional
a major concern. Further, this technology releases Chlorofluorocar- cooling systems to reduce their power consumption and improve
bons (CFC’s) in the atmosphere, which causes depletion of ozone cost economics [2].
layer and global warming. With main challenge of energy short- A number of researchers have conducted different studies on
age in most of the parts of the world and to overcome the is- the performance of EATHE systems considering geometric and cli-
sue of ozone depletion, the renewable energy technologies can be matic variations. Sodha et al. [3] investigated an EATHE system for
heating/cooling to supply the conditioned air to a hospital in India.
They found that the EATHE was able to produce the cooling and
Abbreviations: PVC, poly vinyl chloride; MS, mild steel; EATHE, earth air tun- heating capacity of 512 kWh and 269 kWh respectively, with 80 m
nel heat exchanger; RH, Relative Humidity; COP, Coefficient of Performance; RPM, long buried pipe. The dynamic performance of the EATHE system
Rotations Per Minute. was evaluated by Mihalakakou et al. [4] using an unsteady state
∗
Corresponding author.
numerical model during the summer season. Santamouris et al.
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Jakhar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.04.026
0378-7788/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
108 R. Misra et al. / Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115

ture was higher by 5–15 °C during winter season and could save
Nomenclature 10,321 kWh of energy per year. Exergetic and economic analysis
was carried out by Ozgener et al. [10] to design and optimize a
Tsoil Temperature of soil, °C closed loop EATHE system for greenhouse heating. Hollmuller and
Tamb Ambient air temperature, °C Lachal [11] propounded and validated weather independent design
DT1 to DT8: Temperature of air along the EATHE pipe length, guidelines of EATHE systems. Misra et al. [12] experimentally in-
°C vestigated the performance of the EATHE system integrated with
Ca Specific heat capacity of air (J/kg K) vapor compression machine. They found that the electrical power
E˙ x Exergy rate (W) consumption of vapor compression machine was reduced by 18.1%
f Friction factor for smooth pipes with EATHE system. Bansal et al. [13] examined the effect of soil
h Convection heat transfer coefficient between air thermal conductivity and operating hours on the performance of
and inner surface of EATHE pipe (W/m2 K) the EATHE system. They observed that the maximum tempera-
h Specific enthalpy (kJ/kg) ture drop was obtained as 15.6 K, 17.0 K and 17.3 K for the soil
ksoil Thermal conductivity of soil (W/m K) thermal conductivities of 0.52 W/m K, 2 W/m K and 4 W/m K re-
kp Thermal conductivity of pipe (W/m K) spectively. Li et al. [14] performed both numerically and experi-
lp Length of pipe (m) mental studies on EATHE system integrated with solar collectors
m Mass flow rate of air (kg/s) and solar chimney. The maximum cooling capacities were achieved
Nu Nusselt number as 3308 W and 2582 W for the EATHE and integrated system
pr Prandtl number respectively.
Re Reynold number A design was presented by Rodrigues et al. [15] to increase
rsoil Radius of soil annulus (m) the performance of the EATHE system. They observed that the
ro Outer radius of EATHE pipe (m) performance of the proposed system was improved by 73% and
ri Inner radius of EATHE pipe (m) 115% for the cooling and heating respectively as compared to the
s Specific entropy (kJ/kg K) simple EATHE system. Ozenger et al. [16] developed a theoreti-
T Temperature (K) cal model to predict the soil temperature at various depths. They
t Thickness (m) found maximum error between experimental and theoretical re-
va Velocity of air (m/s) sults as 10.78%, 10%, 10.26% and 14.95% for depth of 5 cm, 10 cm,
20 cm and 300 cm respectively. Ozenger and Ozenger [17] mon-
Subscripts
itored thermo-economic parameters of EATHE system. They con-
a ambient
cluded that the study could be used to develop a commercial
i Inlet
EATHE system. Jakhar et al. [18] evaluated the performance of
o Outlet
EATHE system integrated with solar air heating duct. And claimed
c convection
a COP of 4.57. Further Jakhar et al. [19] did a parametric study and
p pipe
found that the 34 m pipe length of EATHE system is sufficient for
ref Reference temperature
the semi-arid regions. Uddin et al. [20] conducted an experimental
R thermal resistance
study to assess the life cycle analysis of the EATHE system, select-
s soil
ing PVC and MS as material for the heat exchanger and attained
a air
the thermal comfort in buildings from severe atmospheric condi-
ai Inlet temperature of EATHE
tions of 11 °C, 91% RH and 34 °C, 77% RH in winter and summer
ao Outlet temperature of EATHE
season respectively. Ozenger et al. [21] experimentally investigated
Greek letters the thermal performance of underground air tunnel in the heating
 Specific exergy (kJ/kg) mode. They found the maximum heating capacity of the EATHE
ρ Density (kg/m3 ) system as 12 kW. Belatrache et al. [22] designed an EATHE system
ɛ Effectiveness of EATHE system for the arid regions of South Algeria. They performed a parametric
μ Dynamic viscosity of air (N s/m2 ) study to optimize the depth of buried pipes, length and diameter
of the EATHE pipe. They found that the EATHE system could pro-
vide 246.815 kWh cooling capacity in a one year. As per the litera-
[5] presented a new method to calculate the involvement of the ture survey, there is hardly single study available on EATHE system
EATHE system to decrease the cooling demand of the buildings. with wet soil.
Their method was based on the standard of balance point tempera- In the present paper, the thermal performance of EATHE sys-
ture and the model was successfully validated with TRNSYS results. tem with dry and wet soil has been investigated for the climatic
Further Mihalakakou et al. [6] developed a transient model to pre- conditions of Ajmer (India). As per the author’s knowledge, the
dict the variation of earth surface temperature which was validated proposed system is unique and has applied for the first time to
by taking real observations from different soil. Berdal et al. [7] in- investigate the performance of EATHE system with wet soil for a
vestigated through experimental study on ground heat exchanger semi-arid region in India. For the same, the detailed theoretical
coupled with solar collectors for the combined cooling/heating of model of dry soil EATHE system was developed and validated ex-
a residential building. They achieved the COP of ground heat ex- perimentally on an experimental set-up installed in Ajmer, India.
changer as 3.75 for the heating mode. The performance of these two systems was investigated based on
Ghosal and tiwari [8] developed a thermodynamic model to in- EATHE outlet temperatures. Further, a parametric study was car-
vestigate the performance of EATHE system for greenhouse cool- ried out to examine the influence of soil moisture variation on the
ing and heating. Their experimental results showed that the green- thermal performance of wet soil EATHE system. Furthermore, the
house temperature reduced by 5–6 °C and increased by 7–8 °C dur- exergy analysis of EATHE system has been carried out in terms of
ing summer and winter seasons respectively. An analytical model exergy destructions to identify the grey areas of the improvement
of EATHE coupled with adobe building was developed by Chel and to utilize the maximum energy. With this analysis, the effec-
and Tiwari [9] for the composite climate of Delhi. The experimen- tiveness and validation of existing EATHE setup could be explored
tation showed that with the help of EATHE, the room tempera- for its future developments and practical applications.
 R. Misra et al. / Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115 109

connected for air supply to EATHE system as shown in Fig. 2 and

all the RTD sensors were connected to data acquisition system.

2.3. Fabrication of water trickling system for wet EATHE

Water trickling system was incorporated in wet EATHE system

using PVC conduit pipes of diameter 25 mm. Small diameter holes
(3 mm) were drilled along the length of conduit pipe parallel to
EATHE pipe at a pitch of 25 mm. These drilled conduit pipes were
connected to vertical pipes for water supply, and provision was
kept to distribute water in longitudinal and radial directions us-
ing four-way connecter at every 1 m distance for initial 30 m pipe
length as shown in Fig. 3(a). Provision of second standby water
supply system was also included incase first water trickling system
fails as shown in Fig. 3(b). Eight 100 mm diameter vertical pipes
Fig. 1. Position of RTD sensors along pipe length. were also installed at certain intervals to measure the soil mois-
ture content at a depth of 3.7 m as shown in Fig. 3(b).

2. Description of experimental set-up

2.4. Instruments used in experimentation
Two experimental set-ups of dry and wet earth air tunnel heat
exchangers have been developed at Ajmer, India for the perfor- Different instruments were used for measuring temperature of
mance study. The climate of Ajmer is representative of a composite air and soil at various locations, relative humidity of airand air
climate and summers (March to June) are hot with a maximum flow velocity through EATHE pipe during the experimental study
temperature of 47 °C, while the minimum temperature is nearly as shown in Fig. 4. Ambient air was passed through the earth air
28 °C. Weather during the summer is very hot, and sun strokes are pipe system using a centrifugal blower (make-BRI,capacity-746 W,
common. Relative humidity varies between 10% and 35%. speed: 2800 rpm, maximum discharge: 0.0945 m3 /s) and speed
of centrifugal blower is varied using auto-transformer (make-
Servocon, input: 240 V, output: 0 to 270 V, resolution:1 V). Eight
2.1. Site preparation and excavation of trenches
resistance temperature detectors (Pt-100 sensors, IST make) were
used to measure the temperature of the air at different sections
Two identical earth air tunnel heat exchangers parallel to each
along the length of pipe. To record hourly data RTD sensors were
other were constructed with trench dimension of 30 m × 1.5 m ×
connected to a data logger (make-Keysight, Model-34972A). Rela-
3.7 m. Initially,a pit of depth 3.7 m was excavated at a distance of
tive humidity was measured with the help of thermo-hygrometer
10 m from the proposed EATHE system and a four wire RTD sen-
(make-Fluke-971, range: 5–95%, Resolution: 0.10%, accuracy: ± 2.5%)
sor viz; Tsoil was installed into it and pit was backfilled with the
and airflow velocity through EATHE pipe was measured with the
sand. Sub-soil temperature at 3.7 m depth indicated by the sensor
help of a vane probe type anemometer (make- Lutron, model-
was measured and recorded on hourly basis for a fortnight, in or-
AM-4201, range- 0.4–30.0 m/s and Resolution: 0.1 m/s). Digital soil
der to observe the value and its variation. It was noticed that the
moisture meter (make-Turoni, model: 46,908-TR-15, moisture mea-
temperature of subsoil remained constant at 300.2 K irrespective of
suring range: 0–100%, resolution: 0.1%, moisture probe: stain-
time of the day and this temperature was nothing but the undis-
lesssteel of 6 mm diameter) was used to measure moisture in the
turbed ground temperature. Then two identical and parallel full-
soil.
length trenches were excavated at this depth of 3.7 m, each 30 m
in length and 1.5 m widefor laying the EATHE pipes. Later, the base
of the trenchwas leveled manually. 3. Thermodynamic analysis

2.2. EATHE pipe laying and installation of the temperature sensors This section presents the energy and exergy analysis of EATHE
systems with wet and dry soil.
Commercial PVC pipes of 0.1 m diameter and 3 mm thick were
used in EATHE system. PVC pipes in length of 10 ft. and 20 ft. were 3.1. Energy analysis
connected using PVC sockets and bends and PVC solvent and ad-
hesives were applied at the joints to get leak proof joints to avoid The EATHE system is modeled as three heat transfer processes,
the seepage of water. The presence of moisture inside the pipe may firstly convective heat transfer between the inner surface of buried
lead to the generation of bacteria and algae which are harmful to pipe and air flowing through the pipe, secondly conduction heat
health. transfer due to pipe thickness and thirdly conduction heat transfer
Fine holes were drilled on the pipe, and temperature sensors between the surrounding soil and outer surface of buried pipe. The
were inserted up to the center of the pipe. The clearance be- EATHE system is modeled as a cross-flow heat exchanger with one
tween sensor wire and pipe surface was packed with M-Seal. Eight fluid unmixed (i.e., air).
RTD sensors (DT1 to DT8) were mounted along the pipe length of
EATHE system at 0.1 m, 5 m, 10 m, 20 m, 30 m, 40 m, 50 m and 60 m • The steady state heat transfer is considered for the analysis.
respectively, from the upstream end to measure air temperatures • The thermal conductivity of the soil is considered as homoge-
as shown in Fig. 1. nous.
Vertical pipes were attached at inlet and exit of U-shaped hor- • The undisturbed soil temperature is taken as 27 °C.
izontal EATHE pipe, and 1 cm thick PUF (Polyurethane foam) insu- • The EATHE pipe is in uniform circular cross-section area.
lation was provided on the exit vertical pipes in order to prevent • The thermal effect of the surrounding soil vanishes after a dis-
its thermal interaction with the surrounding soil. The blower was tance equal to pipe radius from the buried piper outer surface.
110 R. Misra et al. / Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115

Fig. 2. Experimental set-up of dry and wet EATHE systems.

Fig. 3. (a): Horizontal and vertical conduit pipes for water supply.
(b): Standby water supply system and vertical pipes for soil moisture measurement.

The thermal resistance of the soil annulus is given as [23]: Here f is the friction factor for smooth buried pipes and is given
 rsoil  by Petukhov’s relation
ln ro
Rsoil = (1)
2π lp ksoil f = (0.79 ln Re − 1.64 )−2 (5)
The thermal resistance due to pipe thickness is given as [23]: The thermal resistance due to convection heat transfer between
 ro  flowing air and inner surface of buried pipe is calculated as [24]:
ln ri
R pipe = (2)
2π lp k p 1
RC = (6)
The Reynolds number (Re) and Nusselt number (Nu) for flow 2π ri l p h
inside the buried pipe is calculated as:
where h is convection heat transfer coefficient and given as [24]:
ρva 2ri
Re = (3)
μ Nu ka
h= (7)
The Nusselt number for laminar flow in a buried pipe is given 2ri
as:
The overall thermal resistance between flowing air and soil of
Nu = 4.36, f or Re < 2300 EATHE system is given as
The Nusselt number for fully developed turbulent flow in a Rtotal = Rsoil + R pipe + RC (8)
buried pipe for the ranges 0.5 < pr < 20 0 0 and 2300 < Re < 5 × 106
is calculated as [23]: Then overall heat transfer coefficient is calculated as
( f /8 )(Re − 10 0 0)Pr 1
Nu = 0.5
(4) U= (9)
1 + 12.7 ( f /8 ) (P r 0.66 − 1 ) Rtotal
 R. Misra et al. / Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115 111

Fig. 4. Instruments used in experimentation.

Table 1 by the exergy or availability. It is effective in designing, optimiz-

Thermal and physical parameters of different materials.
ing and analyzing performances of energy systems. The second law
Parameter Material analysis of the EATHE system is carried out using the following
Air Soil PVC equations.
The total exergy input per unit mass flow rate to the EATHE
Density (kg m−3 ) 1.225 2050 1380
Specific heat capacity (J kg−1 K−1 ) 1006 1840 900
system is calculated as [26]:
Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1 ) 0.0242 0.52 0.19
in = (hi − ho ) − To (si − so ) (14)

For a pipe of constant temperature (Tpipesurface = Ts ) the effec- The total exergy out per unit mass flow rate of EATHE system
tiveness of EATHE can be calculated as [25] is calculated as
ε = 1 − e ( − ma ca )
U
(10)
out = (hout − h0 ) − To (sout − so ) (15)
Then the temperature effectiveness of EATHE system is calcu-
lated as [25]
The exergy destruction rate of EATHE is calculated as [27]
Tai − Tao
ε = (11)  
Tai − Tsoil To
E˙ xdes,EW HE = m˙ (in − out ) + Q 1 − (16)
The EATHE outlet temperature is calculated from Eq. (12) as Tsoil
Tao = Tai − (Tai − Tsoil ) × ε (12)
here Q is the heat transferred from EATHE to soil and calculated
The EATHE cooling potential is calculated as by Eq. (13)
Q = ma ca (Tai − Tao ) (13) The reference temperature (T0 ) is taken as equal to average am-
bient temperature. The specific enthalpy and specific entropy at in-
The thermal and physical parameters of different materials used
let and outlet of EATHE Eqs. 14 and (15) are calculated using MAT-
in analysis are presented in Table 1.
LAB, calling the required parameters from REFPROP v9.0.
3.2. Exergy analysis The exergetic efficiency of EATHE system is calculated as
 
The maximum useful work that can be extracted from a sys- E˙ x
ηII law,EAT HE = 1 − des,EAT HE (17)
tem at a given condition with respect to the surroundings is given m˙ in
112 R. Misra et al. / Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115

Table 2
Temperature of soil layers at different depths.

Position of temperature sensor Temperature in °C at 2.00 PM.

12 June 2016 16 June 2016 20 June 2016

Depth wise (from ground surface) variation of soil temperature T6 at 3.7 m depth 27.3 27.2 27.2
T5 at 2.9 m depth 30.3 30.2 30.3
T4 at 2.1 m depth 34.5 34.6 34.7
T3 at 1.7 m depth 36.5 36.5 36.7
T2 at 0.9 m depth 38.6 38.5 38.8
T1 at ground surface 39.8 39.7 40.1

4. Performance and results of EATHE system with dry and wet

soil

The experimental set-ups were developed at the backyard of

main building of GEC Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. To investigate the
thermal performance of EATHE systems with dry and wet soil, both
the systems were operated simultaneously keeping the same air
flow velocity (5 m/s) through the pipes. Ambient conditions for the
both systems were also same. In the experimental work, moisture
content of the soil in the immediate vicinity of PVC pipes of wet
EATHE system was varied uniformly from 5% to 15%. The moisture
content of soil was precisely measured at different sections along
the length of pipe. The soil surrounding the EATHE pipe of wet
system was impregnated with water manually by means of vertical
conduit pipes. Water was supplied into the network of water trick- Fig. 5. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 5% wet-
ness after 1 h operation of the system.
ling system after 7.30 p.m. everyday so that sufficient time was
available for the water to seep through the soil layers surrounding
the pipes. Water was also supplied during the operation of EATHE
after every 3 h so that the desired level of moisture into the soil
domain of wet system can be maintained. After 7.30 p.m. both the
systems were kept off till 8.30 a.m. next day so the EATHE system
was not operated for those 13 h. This also helps to regenerate the
soil around the pipe during night, which leads to uniform soil tem-
perature. Thus, the non operation during night does not affect the
EATHE performance drastically.
Measurement and recording of hourly data included the follow-
ing parameters viz. temperature of inlet and outlet air of EATHE
system, temperature of air in the EATHE pipe at different loca-
tions, ambient air temperature and depth-wise temperature of soil
at six points. Table 2 shows the depth wise difference in soil tem-
perature. The temperature sensor T6 (4wire RTD) shows the tem-
perature of soil at a depth of 3.7 m. Temperature indicated by the Fig. 6. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 5% wet-
ness after 6 h operation of the system.
sensor was measured and recorded on hourly basis for a fortnight,
in order to observe the variation in the sub soil temperature. It
was noticed that the temperature of sub soil remained constant at Similarly, the theoretical and experimental results of EATHE
27.2 °C irrespective of time of the day. This temperature was noth- outlet air along the length of pipes for both dry and wet EATHE
ing but the undisturbed ground temperature. It is observed that systems after 6 h and 10 h operation of the system are shown in
the temperature of soil at this depth is not at all affected by the Figs. 6 and 7 respectively. After 6 h and 10 h of continuous oper-
diurnal variation in ambient temperature and solar radiation. ation of EATHE system the total drop in air temperature obtained
Fig. 5 shows the theoretical and experimental variation in tem- from dry system are, 13.5 °C and 9.0 °C which are obtained at the
perature of air along the length of pipes for both dry and wet exit of EATHE pipe. However, for wet system nearly same drop of
EATHE systems after 1 h operation of the system. Moisture content 13.9 °C, 9.4 °C are obtained at a pipe length of only 40 m. Hence,
of soil surrounding the pipe of wet system was 5%. From Fig. 5, it impregnating the soil with water brings about an improvement in
is observed that under identical operating conditions, after 1 h of the cooling potential of the EATHE system. It is worth to mention
operation, the temperature of air reduces from 38.3 °C to 33.2 °C that irrespective of duration of operation the wet system is capa-
and from 38.3 °C to 32.2 °C for dry and wet system respectively, at ble of producing those levels of temperature drops at a length of
a pipe length of 20 m. It is observed that the temperature of air at 40 m which are produced by dry system at 60 m length, which re-
the outlet of wet system is lesser than that obtained from dry sys- sults into net reduction in pipe length by 33.3% for wet system. It
tem. It is remarkable to note that after 1 h of operation the total is further noticed from Fig. 5 that after 1 h of operation, 82.4% of
drop in air temperature obtained from dry system is 7.4 °C which total temperature drop is obtained at 30 m length for dry system,
is obtained at the exit (60 m) of EATHE pipe. However, for wet sys- whereas, corresponding value for wet system is 93.5%. Similarly,
tem nearly same drop of 7.7 °C is obtained at a pipe length of only after 6 h and 10 h of continuous operation the 77% and 82.2% to-
40 m. tal temperature drops are obtained at 30 m length for dry system,
whereas, corresponding for wet system 95% and 93.6% tempera-
 R. Misra et al. / Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115 113

Fig. 7. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 5% wet- Fig. 9. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 10% wet-
ness after 10 h operation of the system. ness after 6 h operation of the system.

Fig. 10. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 10%
Fig. 8. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 10% wet-
wetness after 10 h operation of the system.
ness after 6 h operation of the system.

ture drops are obtained as shown in Fig. 6 and It is also observed

that for wet system the pipe length at which 90% of total tem-
perature drop is obtained as 28 m. Therefore, the behavior of soil
changes due to the presence of moisture tremendously and it dif-
fuses most of the heat to surrounding soil layers at a faster rate. A
fair agreement is observed between experimental and theoretical
results. The error obtained by validating the experimental results
with theoretical results gives the range from 2.51% to 9.93%, 5.64%
to 10.85% and from 3.68% to 10.74% for 1 h, 6 h and 10 h con-
tinuous operation of EATHE system respectively. This quantum of
error is due to experimentation. The reason for the same may be
improper insulation of pipes, instrumental errors in measuring de-
vices, loose junctions, fitting and joint in the experimental setup.
Fig. 11. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 15%
The hourly variation of experimental and theoretical results of wetness after 1 h operation of the system.
both EATHE systems after 1 h, 6 h and 10 h continuous operation
of the system are shown in Figs. 8–10. Moisture content of soil
surrounding the pipe of wet system was 10%. It is observed from system, whereas, corresponding 93% and 93.8% temperature drops
Fig. 8 that after 1 h of operation the experimental total drop in air are obtained at 30 m length for wet system. The error between ex-
temperature obtained from dry system is 9 °C which is obtained at perimental and theoretical results is observed to vary from 3.95%
the exit of EATHE pipe. While it is obtained as 12 °C for the the- to 9.64%, 4.37% to 10.32% and 3.36% to 10.83% for 1 h, 6 h and 10 h
oretical study. However, for wet system higher temperature drop continuous operation of the system respectively.
of 9.3 °C is obtained at a pipe length of only 40 m. Similarly after Fig. 11 shows the variation in temperature of air along the
6 h and 10 h of continuous operation the total drop in air temper- length of pipes for both dry and wet EATHE systems with 15%
ature obtained from dry system are13.8 °C and 9.2 °C as shown in soil moisture content. It is observed that after 1 h of operation,
Figs. 9 and 10. However, for wet system higher temperature drop the temperature of air reduces from 39.8 °C to 31.0 °C and from
of 14.1 °C and 9.5 °C are obtained at a pipe length of only 40 m. 30.5 °C to 32.2 °C for dry and wet system respectively, at a pipe
It is further noticed from Fig. 8 that after 1 h of operation, 81.1% length of 60 m. It can be seen that the temperature of air at the
of total temperature drop is obtained at 30 m length for dry sys- outlet of wet system is lesser than that obtained from dry system.
tem, whereas, corresponding value for wet system is 93.6%. Sim- Figs. 12 and 13 show that after 6 h and 10 h of continuous oper-
ilarly after 6 h and 10 h of continuous operation the 78.9% and ation the total drop in air temperature obtained from dry system
78.2% total temperature drops are obtained at 30 m length for dry are 13.9 °C and 9.4 °C at the exit of EATHE pipe. While for wet sys-
114 R. Misra et al. / Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115

Fig. 14. Exergetic destruction rate of the wet and dry soil EATHE systems with 15%
Fig. 12. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 15% wetness after 6 h operation of the system.
wetness after 6 h operation of the system.

Fig. 13. Temperature of the EATHE outlet air along the length of pipe with 15% Fig. 15. Exergetic efficiency of the wet and dry soil EATHE systems along the pipe
wetness after 10 h operation of the system. length with 15% wetness.

tem higher temperature drop of 14.2 °C and 9.7 °C are obtained at it is found that maximum exergy destruction rate take place in
a pipe length of only 40 m. Hence, impregnating the soil with wa- buried pipes due to friction. This exergy destruction could be re-
ter brings about an improvement in the cooling potential of the duced with better finishing and using lower coefficient of pipes.
EATHE system. It is worth to mention that irrespective of duration Fig. 15 shows the exergetic efficiency of the wet and dry soil EATHE
of operation the wet system is capable of producing those levels systems along the length of pipe with 15% wetness after 6 h op-
of temperature drops at a length of 40 m which are produced by eration of the system. It is observed that the exergetic efficiency
dry system at 60 m length, which results into net reduction in pipe of the wet soil EATHE system is higher as compared to dry EATHE
length more than 33.3% for wet system. The experimental results system. This is due to the fact that the exergy destructions rate is
are within the close agreement with the theoretical results with higher in the dry soil EATHE systems compared to wet soil EATHE
variation of 2.79–10.51%, 4.37–10.61% and 2.09–10.77% for 1 h, 6 h system. The highest exergetic efficiency values for the dry soil and
and 10 h continuous operation of EATHE system respectively. This wet soil EATHE system are obtained as 53.18% and 52.25% respec-
error occurred can be attributed to the various factors, namely, tively. From the above experimental and exergetic study, it is ob-
variation in coefficient of friction of materials used in simulation, served that the pipe length of the EATHE system with wet soil is
improper insulation of pipes and irregularities such as fitting and decreased up to 14 m as compared to dry soil system, hence cur-
joints in experimental setup. rent wet soil system could be efficient and suitable for the purpose
With increase in soil moisture, the temperature drop increases of the cooling in semi-arid regions.
which eventually decreases the pipe length of wet EATHE system.
In such system, 90% of the temperature drop occurs are 28 m, 27 m
and 26 m pipe length for 5%, 10% and 15% wetness respectively. 5. Error analysis
Thus, for every 5% increase in the moisture, the pipe length re-
duces by a meter. In case of wet soil EATHE the temperature re- As discussed in the Section 2, the minimum value for air flow
duction of 90% achieved at a pipe length of 40 m, after 6 h of op- velocity and temperature comes out to be 5 m/s and 30.5 °C. Cor-
eration. Hence it is concluded that with wet EATHE the pipe length respondingly the least value for their measuring instrument are
could be reduced to 12–14 m with same cooling performance. 0.1 m/s and 0.1 °C. Using the analysis of error approach, the peak
The exergy destruction rate of the wet and dry soil EATHE error is calculated as the ratio of least count of the measuring
systems with 15% wetness after 6 h operation of the system is instrument to the lowest value recorded for that parameter [28].
shown in Fig. 14. According to this figure the exergy destruction Hence, the error investigations give the uncertainties in the ob-
rate is higher for the dry soil EATHE system as compared to wet servation as ± 2.0% and ± 0.32%, for flow velocity and temperature
soil EATHE system. The exergy destruction rate ranges between respectively. This is actual instrumental error observed during the
80.66 W to 85.77 W and 79.11 W to 85.56 W for dry soil and wet measurement as the present work is comparative analysis of actual
soil EATHE system respectively. The exergy destruction occurs pre- experimentation to investigate the performance of various param-
dominantly due to blower and underground pipes (i.e. EATHE). And eters in different operational conditions.
 R. Misra et al. / Energy & Buildings 171 (2018) 107–115 115

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