International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2017) 34–41

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

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

Nanofluids as the circuit fluids of the geothermal borehole

heat exchangers
Mahdi Daneshipour, Roohollah Rafee ⁎
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan, P.O. Box: 35131-19111, Iran

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

Available online 13 December 2016 Application of the CuO water and Al2O3 water nanofluids as the working fluids of a geothermal borehole heat ex-
changer is investigated using numerical simulation. For this purpose, the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes
Keywords: (RANS) equations with SST k-ω turbulence model are numerically solved to model the flow. Physical properties
Geothermal heat exchanger of the nanofluids are obtained using the available correlations. To show the validity of the simulations, the results
CuO water for pure water are compared with available data in the literature. Results show that there is a specific diameter
Al2O3 water
ratio at which the total water flow pressure loss in the heat exchanger is minimum. The results also show that
Nanofluid
Turbulent flow
the CuO-water nanofluid gives higher extracted heat than the alumina-water nanofluid but at the penalty of higher
Pumping power pressure losses and pumping powers.
Heat transfer rate © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction experimentally investigated the operation of geothermal heat ex-

Geothermal energy is a renewable energy obtained from the heat of
the lava in the depths of the earth which is quite advantageous environ-
mentally [1,2].
Saturated Geothermal Reservoirs and Hot Dry Rock (HDR) are two
main categories of geothermal resources. This categorization is based
on the presence of geofluid and permeability of the resource. It was
proven that that thermal energy stored in rocks can be used for heating,
cooling, and hot water consumption of the homes with low cost and
zero environmental emissions [3].
Coaxial Borehole Heat exchangers are extensively applied for extrac-
tion of energy from the geothermal hot dry rock resources. This type of
heat exchanger has been studied extensively by the researchers. For ex-
ample, Nalla et al. [4] numerically studied the coaxial heat exchangers in
large depth. They investigate the effects of some factors such as diame-
ter changes, soil type, and fluid properties with time on the efficiency of
the heat exchanger.
Al-Khoury et al. [5,6] used finite element method for analysis of the
three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer in the geothermal sys-
tems for steady state and transient condition. They used some available
correlations for estimation of the Nusselt number.
Feng [7] developed a geothermal reservoir simulator to study the
downhole heat exchangers used for energy extraction from the saturat-
ed and fractured reservoirs. His model is suitable for areas with low per-
meability soil in which the ground water is available. He used some
correlations for calculations of the Nusselt number. Parisch et al. [8]
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rafee@semnan.ac.ir (R. Rafee).
changers in transient mode and compared their results with numerical
simulation models.
Funabiki et al. [9] studied the influences of natural factors such as
groundwater flow on heat pumps design. Beier et al. [10] presented
an analytical method to obtain the temperature distribution along
the heat exchanger with the same correlations which are previously
used in the literature. They concluded that the inner pipe heat resis-
tance can affect the heat transfer rate from the ground to the heat ex-
changer. Sliwa et al. [11] described the possibility of the use of
geothermal heat exchangers in oil wells. Mastrulla et al. [12] studied
the application of the carbon dioxide in the geothermal heat ex-
changers and heat pumps. Masalias [13] modeled a coaxial geother-
mal heat exchanger with the depth of 200 m for the water flows. The
effects of changes in the hydraulic diameter are studied in his work.
There are significant amounts of correlations presented in the litera-
ture for heat transfer coefficients of coaxial flows based on experi-
mental data [14].
Traditional methods for enhancing the convective heat transfer such
as applying the fins to increase the heat transfer area will be difficult on
the internal walls of the pipes used in geothermal heat exchangers.
Nanoparticles can be used as the primary circuit fluid to enhance the
thermal properties of the fluid. The mixture of nanoparticles in fluids
(termed as nanofluids) has been extensively studied and has proven
to lead to substantial increases in thermal properties of fluids with
very low concentrations of particles [15]
During the past decades, applications of the nanofluids in different
thermal apparatus was studied in detail. For example, Duangthongsuk
and Wongwise [16] studied the enhancement of heat transfer and pres-
sure drop for Titania-water nanofluid in a double-tube counter flow

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2016.12.002
0735-1933/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Daneshipour, R. Rafee / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2017) 34–41 35

Mohebbi et al. [20,21] studied the effects of rib shapes and dimen-
Nomenclature
sions on the heat transfer characteristics of the turbulent flow of
Al2O3-water nanofluid inside ribbed tubes and obtained some corre-
A area m2
lations for Nusselt number in different ribbed tubes.
cp specific heat J/kg·K
Mokhtari Moghari et al. [22] studied the mixed convection heat
Dh hydraulic diameter m
transfer of Al2O3–water nanofluid in horizontal annuli and conclud-
Dω cross diffusion term kg/m3 s2
ed that the local Nusselt number increases with increase in nanopar-
Gk turbulent kinetic energy production rate kg/ms3
ticle concentration, Grashof number, and radius ratio. However, for
Gω production rate of the specific dissipation kg/m3 s2
large concentrations of the nanoparticles, there are considerable
h convection heat transfer coefficient W/m2·K
increments in pressure drop and pumping power, which are not
k turbulent kinetic energy m2/s2
desirable.
L length m
There are a few works related to applications of the nanofluids
Nu Nusselt number
in geothermal applications. For example, Bouyaghchi et al. [23]
P pressure Pa
modeled and optimized a novel combined cooling, heating and
q heat flux W/m2
power (CCHP) cycle driven by geothermal and solar energies
Re Reynolds number
using the CuO-water (copper oxide) nanofluid. However, the heat
r radius m
transfer of nanofluids inside the borehole heat exchangers is not
R″ thermal resistance in area m2K/W
studied in the previous works. This is the main motivation for the
T temperature K
study of this paper. In this paper, the effects of using CuO-water
u axial velocity component m/s
and Al2O3-water nanofluids on the performance of the geothermal
U velocity vector m/s
borehole heat exchangers.
Yk dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy kg/ms3
Yω dissipation rate of ω kg/m3 s2
2. Problem definition and mathematical modeling
z axial location in depth direction m

The geometry of the heat exchanger is shown in Fig. 1. As can be

Subscript
seen, the water enters the annular section of the exchanger and
avg average
when it reaches the end of the annular section, it returns through
b bulk
the inner pipe. The fluid flow and heat transfer in borehole heat ex-
c casing
changer is considered to be axisymmetric. The main dimensions
f fluid
are given in Table 1.
gen generation
By changing the diameter of the inner pipe (D1), for a fixed inner di-
h hydraulic
ameter of the outer tube (D3), different geometries with the diameter
in inlet
ratios of Di/Do = 0.34, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, and 0.85 were considered
s solid
for numerical simulations in this study.
Superscript
2.1. Governing equations
* dimensionless values

The continuity, momentum and energy equations for incom-

Greek letters
pressible turbulent flow based on the Reynolds averaging are as
γ coefficient of the ground temperature variation K/m
follows
ρ density kg/m3
λ thermal conductivity coefficient W/m·K
μ dynamic viscosity kg/m·s ∂
ðui Þ ¼ 0 ð1Þ
Г diffusion coefficient kg/m·s ∂xi
ω specific dissipation rate (1/s)
" # " ! #
∂ ∂P ∂ ∂ui
ρ uj ðui Þ ¼ − þ μ −ρu0i u0 j ð2Þ
∂x j ∂xi ∂x j ∂x j

heat exchanger and showed that the convection heat transfer coefficient
and pressure drop of the nanofluid are higher than that of the base fluid. " # " ! #
Fotukian and Nasr Esfahany [17] studied the heat transfer and pressure ∂   ∂ ∂T
ρC P uj T ¼ λ −ρcp u0 j T0 ð3Þ
drop for small amounts of CuO nanoparticles in water inside a circular ∂x j ∂x j ∂x j
tube under turbulent flow regime experimentally and observed that the
convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop increased by 25%
Energy balance for the solid parts is expressed as
and 20%, respectively.
Wongcharee and Eiamsa-ard [18] experimentally studied the flow of
∇  ðλs ∇T s Þ ¼ 0 ð4Þ
CuO-water nanofluid inside a corrugated tube under the turbulent re-
gime. They observed that heat transfer for mentioned geometry with
0.7% volume fraction of CuO increases 1.57 times of that for pure fluid Subscripts s represents the “solid” parts. ui is the Reynolds aver-
inside the plain tube. Manca et al. [19] carried out a numerical investiga- aged velocity vector component, p is the pressure, μ is the fluid
tion on the turbulent forced convection of Al2O3-water nanofluid in a viscosity, ρ is the fluid density, cp is the specific heat of the fluid,
ribbed channel with different rib shapes (square and rectangular). T is the temperature, λ and λs are the thermal conductivities of
They showed that the heat transfer enhancement increases with the the fluid and solids (soil) respectively. The Boussinesq hypothesis
particles volume fraction and Reynolds number but it is accompanied and SST k-ω model are used for calculation of the Reynolds stress-
by more pressure drop penalty. es (ρu0i u0j ).
36 M. Daneshipour, R. Rafee / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2017) 34–41

Fig. 1. Geometry of the studied heat exchanger with part names and flow directions (See Table 1).

The wall heat resistance for inner wall is defined as represent the dissipation rate of k and ω due to turbulence. Dω repre-
sents the cross-diffusion term.
ln ðr2 =r1 Þ
Rip ¼ ð5Þ
2πλi L 2.2. Boundary conditions

In which the λ is the thermal conductivity of internal wall. At the inlet, the temperature of the fluid is 3.5 °C and it enters with a
Transport equations for turbulent kinetic energy (k) and specific dis- uniform velocity and constant volumetric flow rate of 0.8 l/s (according
sipation rate (ω) are as follows [24]: to data of Masalias [13]). It is assumed that the surrounding soil temper-
ature increases linearly with depth. At the outlet, pressure is assumed to
! be constant. The following assumptions were made at the interfaces of
∂k ∂ ∂k ~ −Y
ρui ¼ Γk þGk k ð6Þ the fluid and solid parts:
∂xi ∂x j ∂x j
!
∂ω ∂ ∂ω *
ρui ¼ Γω þ Gω −Y ω þ Dω ð7Þ U¼ 0 ð8Þ
∂xi ∂x j ∂x j

T ¼ Ts ð9Þ
In above equations, Gk is the generation of turbulence kinetic ener-
gy due to velocity gradients. Gω represents the generation of ω. Γk and Γω
represent the effective diffusivity of k and ω, respectively. Yk and Yω Table 3
Thermophysical properties of CuO and Al2O3 nanoparticles.

Parameter CuO Al2O3

Table 1
Density 6320 kg/m3 3900 kg/m3
Geometry of the heat exchanger.
Heat capacitance 532 J/kg·K 880 J/kg·K
Value Definition Parameter Thermal conductivity 76 W/m·K 40 W/m·K

Variable The inner radius of the inner tube r1

5 mm The thickness of the inner tube eip
r1 + 5 mm The outer radius of the inner tube r2
50 mm The inner radius of the outer tube r3
5 mm The thickness of the outer tube eop
55 mm The outer radius of the outer tube r4
10 mm Casing thickness ec
65 mm Radius of the casing r5
100 mm Studied ground thickness erock
165 mm Studied ground radius r6
200 m Depth of heat exchanger L

Table 2
Thermal characteristics of the tubes and casing.

Value Definition Parameter

Variable Thermal resistance of the inner tube R″ip (m2K/W)

15 Conductivity coefficient of outer tube λop(W/m·K)
Fig. 2. Outlet temperature against the number of cells for checking the grid independency
15 Conductivity coefficient of casing λc(W/m·K)
of the solution.
 M. Daneshipour, R. Rafee / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2017) 34–41 37

Fig. 3. Details of the generated mesh.

∂T ∂T s The effective density and the heat capacitance of the nanofluid are
−λeff ¼ −λs ð10Þ
∂n ∂n given by Eqs. (16) and (17)

In above equations, Ts is the solid wall temperature, λs is the thermal ρnf ¼ ð1−ϕÞρbf þ ϕρp ð16Þ
conductivity of the solid wall, n is the local coordinate normal to the
υ
wall. λeff ¼ ρcp ð Pr υt
þ Pr Þ is the effective thermal conductivity of the fluid. ð1−ϕÞρbf C p;bf þ ϕρp C p;p
t C pnf ¼ ð17Þ
The inlet turbulence intensity of 10% was considered in the simula- ρnf
tions. The diameter ratio (Di/Do) is the main variable of this study. The
inner diameter of the outer pipe (r3) is constant in all simulations. where ϕ is the solid volume fraction of nanoparticles in base fluid. The
Thermophysical and heat transfer properties of the solid walls are effective dynamic viscosity of the nanofluid given by Brinkman [27].
given in Table 2. μf
Variations of the Earth's temperature with depth are given by Eq. μ nf ¼ ð18Þ
(11) [13]. Thermal properties of soil in this study have been considered ð1−φÞ2:5
in accordance with Table 3.
In the present work, the conductivity of nanofluids is calculated
T ∞ ðzÞ ¼ T s þ γ  z ð11Þ using the Maxwell approximation [28] with an assumption of uniform
size and spherical shape of nanoparticles.

Thermophysical properties of water change with the temperature  

kp þ 2k f −2 k f −kp φ
(in Kelvin) in accordance with the following equations [13]: knf ¼ k f   ð19Þ
kp þ 2kp þ k f −kp φ

ρ ¼ 741:966 þ 1:9613T−0:00371211T 2 ð12Þ

3. Validation of the numerical simulations
cp ¼ 820 þ 11:82T−0:03502T 2 þ 3:599  10−5 T 3 ð13Þ
For validation of the numerical methods used in this paper, the ge-
λ ¼ −0:3835 þ 0:00525T−6:265  10 −6 2
T ð14Þ ometry and boundary conditions of the problem studied by Masalias
[13] has been selected. The Fluent 6.3.26 Software is used for simula-
tions of the flow. Finite volume method on collocated cells has been
μ ¼ 10−13:73þ −0:0197T−1:47  10−5 T 2
1830
T ð15Þ used to discretize the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equa-
tions. The SIMPLEC algorithm is used for coupling between the pressure
In this work CuO-water and Al2O3-water nanofluids are used instead and velocity [29]. Convective terms have been discretized using the sec-
of pure water in the heat exchanger. ond order upwind method. The problem has been solved with differ-
Physical properties of CuO and Al2O3 nanoparticles are presented in ent mesh sizes. In this paper, for checking the grid independency of
Table 3 [25,26]. the solution, four different meshes were generated. The meshes
have 200,000, 350,000, 1,000,000, and 1,400,000 quadrilateral cells,
respectively. The calculated outlet temperatures for different meshes
are shown in Fig. 2.
As shown, the outlet bulk flow temperature does not change for
1,000,000 cells and 1,400,000 cells. Therefore, a grid with 50 division
in the radial direction and 20,000 divisions in the axial direction is se-
lected for the simulations. Details of the generated mesh are shown in
Fig. 3.
The number of cells near the wall also is more than the central area
for fluid flow and cells are quadrilateral (see Fig. 4).
Values of y+ for the first cells near the wall are b5 and the cell size
ratio from the near wall is 1.1. Different turbulence models were tested.
The results of different turbulence models were similar. The SST k-ω
Fig. 4. Grid density in the near wall region. model was chosen in this study. This model has a good performance
38 M. Daneshipour, R. Rafee / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2017) 34–41

Fig. 5. Validation of the numerical simulation: a) Comparison between the obtained bulk flow temperature of the pure water in the present work and results of Masalias [13] b)
Comparision between the predicted Nusselt number at the inner tube wall with the results of Dittus-Boelter equation (Di/Do = 0.6, R″ip = 0.02 m2 K/W).

for wall-bounded boundary layers at low Reynolds numbers. It is suit-
able for complex boundary layer flows under adverse pressure gradi-
ents where the separation occurs. The convergence criterion of 10−5
was selected for termination of the iterative solution procedure.
Bulk flow temperature variations have been compared with the re-
sults of Masalias [13] in Fig. (5-a). Low differences between the results
show the correctness of the methods used in this study. Also, variations
of the Nusselt number with the depth of the exchanger at the inner tube
wall are compared with Dittus-Boelter equation (See Masalias [13]) in
Fig. (5-b). At the inlet of the return line, the predicted Nusselt number
is lower than those obtained by Dittus-Boelter equation, because the
temperature differences on walls of the inner tube are quite low (See
Fig. (5-a).). For the fully developed section of the flow inside the inner
tube, there is a good agreement between the predicted results and
Dittus-Boelter equation. This shows the need for simulation of the
flow especially in the entrance region of the flow and at the beginning
of the return line.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Hydrodynamics results

All simulations are done for a constant outer radius (r3) while the
inner radius (r1) is variable. The walls are considered to be smooth
and constant volumetric flow rate is applied in all cases. The flow Reyn-
olds number in the annular section is defined by [29].

ρVDh
Re ¼ ð16Þ
μ

Dh ¼ Do −Di ¼ 2ðr 3 −r 2 Þ ð17Þ

At constant volumetric flow rate, the velocity is given by V =

4Q/(π(D2o − D2i )) and the hydraulic diameter is Dh = Do − Di. By in-
Fig. 6. Total pressure loss of the flow in the heat exchanger. creasing the diameter ratio (Di/Do), the Reynolds number decreases.
 M. Daneshipour, R. Rafee / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2017) 34–41
Fig. 7. Velocity vectors in annular section and entrance of the return line.
In the turbulent flows with constant volumetric flow rate, by in-
creasing the diameter ratio of Di/Do, the pressure drop will decrease in
central return line but it will increase in annular section. The total pres-
sure loss of the flow in the exchanger is shown in Fig. 6. As can be seen,
in lower diameter ratios, the pressure loss of the flow in the central path
(return line) is more effective than that of the annular path. This trend
continues up to diameter ratio of 0.7. For larger diameter ratios, the
pressure loss of the annular section is dominant, and the total pressure
loss will increase.
Similar but qualitative results can be obtained by using Blasius for-
mula (see e.g. White [29]) for calculation of the pressure loss of the
fully developed flow in the smooth pipes and annuli. The main differ-
ence is the effects of entrance length at the beginning of the return
line. Velocity vectors at the entrance of the return line are shown in
Fig. 7.
Fig. 8 shows the dimensionless pressure loss of the nanofluid flow
inside the heat exchanger. It can be seen that the pressure loss increases
with the volume fraction of the nanofluids almost linearly. This is due to
linear variations of the fluid density with the nanoparticles volume frac-
tion (see Eq. (16)). Assume that the pressure loss is determined by
Darcy-Weisbach formula (Δp = (fL / D)(ρV2 / 2)) in which f is the
Darcy friction factor and L is the equivalent length of the fluid path.
Here, the friction factor f is a function of the Reynolds number (e.g. for
smooth pipes f = 0.3164/Re0.25). On the other hand, when a constant
volumetric flow rate is assumed in a constant geometry, all parameters
except the density and viscosity are constant. Since the density of the
Fig. 8. dimensionless pressure loss of the nanofluids (Rip′′ = 0.1 m2K/W, Di/Do = 0.7).
39
CuO nanoparticles is higher than that of the Al2O3 nanoparticles, higher
pressure losses will be obtained by applying the CuO-water nanofluid.
The same trend exists for required pumping power since the volumetric
flow rate is assumed to be constant and the graphs for pumping power
(Pumping Power = Δp × volumetric flow rate) have the same trends as
shown in Fig. 8.
Fig. 9 shows the ratio of the extracted heat by the nanofluid to the
extracted heat by pure water for several various volume fractions. As
expected, heat extraction will increase by using nanofluids. It can be
seen that the CuO-water nanofluid gives higher extracted heat than
the alumina-water nanofluid. However, from Fig. 8 it is evident
that the flow of CuO-water has higher pressure drop than Alumina-
water.
Variations of the convection heat transfer coefficient with depth at
r = r3 are shown for Al2O3-water nanofluid and CuO-water nanofluid
in Figs. 10 and 11, respectively. In both cases, the Nusselt number will
increase with the volume fraction of the nanoparticles. However, CuO-
water nanofluid has higher heat transfer coefficients because the CuO
nanoparticles have higher thermal conductivity.
5. Conclusions
Effects of applying the nanofluids in the geothermal borehole
heat exchangers were studied in this paper. Numerical simulation
of the turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer were performed by
Fig. 9. Extracted heat ratio for various volume fractions of the nanoparticles. (Rip′′ = 0.1
m2K/W, Di/Do = 0.7).
40 M. Daneshipour, R. Rafee / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2017) 34–41
Fig. 10. Variations of local convective heat transfer coefficients (at r = r3) with the depth of the heat exchanger for different volume fractions of Al2O3 nanoparticles.
solving the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with
SST k-ω turbulence model. The main findings of the paper can be
summarized as:
• There is a specific diameter ratio (Di/Do = 0.7) at which the total
flow pressure loss of the water flow in the heat exchanger is mini-
mum. At lower diameter ratios, the pressure loss of the flow in the
central path (return line) is more effective than that of the annular
path. However, for larger diameter ratios (Di/Do N 0.7), the pres-
sure loss of the annular section is dominant, and the total pressure
loss will increase.
• At the inlet of the return line, the predicted Nusselt number is
lower than those obtained by available correlations, because the
temperature differences on walls of the inner tube are quite low.
In the fully developed section of the flow, there is a good agree-
ment between the predicted results and Dittus-Boelter equation.
• Higher pressure losses will occur when the CuO-water nanofluid is
applied. The same trend exists for required pumping power.
• The CuO-water nanofluid gives higher extracted heat than the alu-
mina-water nanofluid.
• The CuO-water nanofluid has higher coefficients of convection heat
transfer.
Fig. 11. Variations of local convective heat transfer coefficients (at r = r3) with the depth of the heat exchanger for different volume fractions of CuO nanoparticles.
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