Reference data sets for vertical borehole ground heat exchanger models and thermal response test analysis

Ground source heat pump systems often use vertical boreholes to exchange heat with the ground. Two areas of active research are the development of models to predict the thermal performance of vertical boreholes and improved procedures for analysis of in situ thermal conductivity tests, commonly known as thermal response tests (TRT). Both the models and analysis procedures ultimately need to be validated by comparing them to actual borehole data sets. This paper describes reference data sets for researchers to test their borehole models. The data sets are from a large laboratory “sandbox” containing a borehole with a U-tube. The tests are made under more controlled conditions than can be obtained in field tests. Thermal response tests on the borehole include temperature measurements on the borehole wall and within the surrounding soil, which are not usually available in field tests. The test data provide independent values of soil thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance for verifying borehole models and TRT analysis procedures. As an illustration, several borehole models are compared with one of the thermal response tests.