Study on the Effective Well Depth of Single U-Shaped Vertical Buried Pipes Based on Temperature Difference Analysis

A heat transfer model of a single U-shaped vertical buried pipe similar to an actual scenario is established, and the accuracy of the model is verified by experiments. The model is used to analyze the heat transfer performance of vertical buried pipe heat exchangers with well depths of 200, 160, 120, and 80 m. This includes the heat transfer per unit well depth, temperature change of the well wall and fluid along the pipe length, heat transfer coefficient, and section heat transfer validity. With the increase in well depth, the heat exchange per unit well depth decreases, and the proportion of heat exchange in the inlet section to the total heat exchange increases. When the well depths are 200, 160, 120, and 80 m, the last 10 m pipe sections have 30, 40.3, 53.7, and 66.4% of the heat exchange efficiencies of the initial 10 m pipe section, respectively. To obtain a reasonably effective well depth of a single U-shaped vertical buried pipe, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the heat exchange per unit well depth, the temperature difference between the well wall and the fluid, and the energy efficiency of the buried pipe section. Moreover, it should be analyzed in combination with economic factors.