Abstract
A two-dimensional model based on computational fluid dynamics was developed to analyze the thermal performance of an Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) in three cities of Mexico. The climatic data correspond to a temperate climate (México City), a humid-hot climate (Mérida, Yucatán), and an extreme weather (Juárez City, Chihuahua). The EAHE optimal burial depth was reached for the three cities. Temperature, velocity, and cooling and heating potential were presented for each study case. The results show that the cooling and heating potential change with the tube burial depth. In a warm season, a temperature difference between the smallest depth and the biggest reached 13.3, 10.6, and 9.1 °C for Mérida, Mexico City, and Juárez City, respectively. In a cold season, the temperature increased in greater proportion in Juárez City, an average of 2.4 °C per each 0.5 m of depth increment. In the case of Mexico City and Mérida, the temperature increased to 1.8 °C. Thus, there was a temperature difference of 19.2, 14.3, and 14.5 °C for Juárez City, Mexico City, and Mérida, respectively. When analyzing an entire day using the optimum depth, it was found that the maximum heating and cooling capacity of the EAHE were 17.4 and 6.3 °C for Reynolds 100 and 1500, respectively in Juárez City.
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Acknowledgements
M. Rodríguez-Vázquez acknowledges the support provided by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia Y Tecnología (CONACYT) given through its doctorate scholarship program.
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Rodríguez-Vázquez, M., Hernández-Pérez, I., Xamán, J., Chávez, Y., Noh-Pat, F. (2018). Computational Fluid Dynamics for Thermal Evaluation of Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger for Different Climates of Mexico. In: Driss, Z., Necib, B., Zhang, HC. (eds) CFD Techniques and Thermo-Mechanics Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70945-1_3
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