Articles techniques et présentations

Geothermal heat pumps use the earth as a heat source and sink via a ground heat exchanger (GHX) that consists of a network of buried heat exchange pipes, which can either be installed in vertical boreholes or in shallow horizontal trenches or excavations. The main goal in GHX design is ... En savoir plus

The paper presents the development of a method that determines building material and surface properties using relative simple and low-budget experiments, The method comprehends an optimal design of an experimental set up for smart determination of heat and moisture properties using both ... En savoir plus

This paper is a part of a study on energy piles for heating and cooling of buildings. Energy piles are used for two reasons: (1) to transfer structural loads to foundation soils, and (2) to transfer heat from foundation soils to the building for space heating in winter time and for ... En savoir plus

The Delmarva Peninsula is located on the East Coast of the United States, between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Industrial farming in the Delmarva Peninsula leads to levels of nutrients nitrogen, which grossly exceed natural levels and greatly impair the health of the bay. The ... En savoir plus

An experimental program has been developed, with the purpose of evaluating the reliability in building diagnosis and characterization of an integrated analysis of several parameters, associated with acoustic waves propagating through the material. The Direct Transmission Technique has ... En savoir plus

Energy piles transfer the mechanical loads from buildings to the ground and serve as heat exchangers. Temperature changes in the ground influence its moisture content. This paper examines the effect of soil moisture content on the shaft resistance of a pile. Tests were carried out in ... En savoir plus

Natural groundwater flow can increase the efficiency of geothermal system. But groundwater flow is not available everywhere. A patented new idea is to use air injection well to create artificial flow in sandy or gritty soils. The governing equations of fluid flow and heat transfer ... En savoir plus

The transient behavior of the thermal resistance of single and double U-tube borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) is investigated numerically by means of COMSOL Multiphysics® software with reference to the 2D cross section of usually employed BHEs. The study is performed in a dimensionless ... En savoir plus

In this paper, a Finite Element (FE) and scaled-up experimental modal analysis are employed to estimate the natural frequencies of individual spherical and ellipsoidal cells. It is apparent that the mechanical properties of the living cells and particularly the natural frequencies might ... En savoir plus

Direct numerical simulation of single- and two-phase flow in real pore systems is addressed in our paper. The X–ray computed micro-tomography technique has been applied first to reconstruct in details a real pore space of a subcentimetric sample. Making use of dedicated software (ScanIP) ... En savoir plus