Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

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Energy & Buildings

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Performance study of cement-based grouts based on testing and thermal

conductivity modeling for ground-source heat pumps
Shihao Dong a, Guang Liu b, Tao Zhan b, Yang Yao a, Long Ni a,⇑
a
School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology, Harbin 150090, China
b
Institute of Ecological Geology Survey and Research of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin 150030, China

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

Article history: The annulus zone between the vertical ground heat exchanger and borehole wall needs to be filled with
Received 11 April 2022 grout to enhance heat exchange and prevent groundwater pollution. However, studies on porosity, the
Revised 19 July 2022 dual influence of water-to-cement and sand-to-cement ratios on material properties and theoretical
Accepted 30 July 2022
studies need to be deepened. Hence, the flowability, thermal conductivity, and porosity of cement-
Available online 4 August 2022
based grouts with various proportions were tested. It was found that the increase in the sand-to-
cement ratio and decrease in the water-to-cement ratio helps in the augmentation of thermal conductiv-
Keywords:
ity and decrease of porosity, but lowers the flowability. When the water-to-cement ratio is 0.55, a sand-
Cement-based material
Grouts
to-cement ratio higher than 2.0 will lead to excessive fissures and thus weaken the thermal conductivity.
Ground-source heat pump The maximum thermal conductivity reaches 2.10 W
m1
K1 in the saturated state with a porosity of
Thermal conductivity 0.2442. A high porosity indicates a larger permeability and poor thermal performance; therefore, the sug-
Porosity gested porosity is below 0.43. Moreover, the thermal conductivity-change mechanism was studied by the
series–parallel thermal conductivity model, which can predict the thermal conductivity with an error of
less than 10 %. The model shows that the heat conduction of the components in the grout is mainly in
series. Additionally, improving the sand-to-cement ratio, maintaining high saturation, reducing the
porosity, and adding high-performance aggregates are all ways to improve the thermal conductivity of
the material. And the grouts-taking value area is also marked out.
Ó 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and it is widely used in construction, agriculture, transportation,

In recent years, countries around the world have proposed car-
bon neutrality targets, and China has also pledged to achieve car-
bon neutrality by 2060, prioritizing energy conservation and
emission reduction in various industries. Heating for homes, indus-
tries, and other applications accounts for approximately half of the
total energy consumption [1], becoming the largest energy
end use. Carbon emissions from electricity and commercial heat
used in buildings rose to 10 Gt CO2 in 2019, which is the highest
level ever recorded, resulting from growing energy demand for
heating and cooling with rising air-conditioner ownership and
extreme weather events [2]. As a clean, low-carbon, stable, and
efficient form of heating, a ground-source heat pump (GSHP) can
significantly reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption,
⇑ Corresponding author at: Harbin Institute of Technology, 73 Huanghe Rd.
Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China.
E-mail address: nilonggn@163.com (L. Ni).
and industries, with promising applications.
GSHP systems use the ground as a heat sink for cooling, or as a
heat source for heating. The efficiency of the ground heat exchan-
ger (GHE) determines the system efficiency, and GHEs are divided
into horizontal and vertical forms. Vertical GHEs have higher and
more stable heat transfer, and they occupy a smaller area [3].
The gap between a vertical buried pipe and the surrounding
rock-soil needs to be sealed with grouts; this serves two purposes:
First, it prevents hydraulic collusion and reduces groundwater con-
tamination [4]. Second, it enhances the heat transfer efficiency of
the GHEs [5]. A low-conductivity grout will lead to an increase in
borehole thermal resistance and poor heat transfer [6]. However,
many practical projects neglect the design and application of
grouts, or do not even backfill, which can cause groundwater con-
tamination or inefficient heat transfer. Therefore, it is important to
explore the factors affecting the performance of grouts, which will
help in developing suitable grouts.
Currently, there are two main aspects of research on grouts. One
is based on the analytical model and numerical calculation of heat

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112351
0378-7788/Ó 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al. Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

Nomenclature

a Thermal diffusivity of the object (m2
s1) kLm Thermal conductivity of lower Wiener bounds (W
m1-
h Thickness of the middle specimen (m)
K1)
H1 Thickness of the upper specimen (m) kmU Thermal conductivity of upper Wiener bounds (W
m1-
m1 Mass of the saturated sample suspended in water (kg)
K1)
m2 Mass of saturated but surface-dry sample in the air (kg) qw Density of water (m3
kg1)
m3 Mass of the totally dried sample (kg) qc Density of cement (m3
kg1)
qw Heat flux of the plane heat source in the x-direction qs Density of silica sand (m3
kg1)
(W
m1) se Effective test time (s)
V Apparent volume of the sample (m3) u Sand-to-cement volume ratio
Vp Total volume of pores in the measured sample (m3) Ua Volume fraction of air
Uc Volume fraction of cement
Greek letters Ui Volume fraction of phase i
e Porosity of the sample Us Volume fraction of silica sand
g A model coefficient Uw Volume fraction of water
h(x, s) Excess temperature of the object at position  and time
s (℃) abbreviations
k Thermal conductivity (W
m1
K1) COP Coefficient of performance
ka Thermal conductivity of air (W
m1
K1) GHE Ground heat exchanger
kc Thermal conductivity of cement (W
m1
K1) GSHP Ground source heat pump
ke Thermal conductivity calculated by model (W
m1
K1) PCE Polycarboxylate
ki Thermal conductivity of phase i (W
m1
K1) PCM phase change material
ks Thermal conductivity of silica sand (W
m1
K1)
kw Thermal conductivity of water (W
m1
K1)

transfer, analyzing the effects of thermal properties of different
materials on the thermal resistance of boreholes and GHE heat
transfer capacity, etc. Numerical studies have shown that high-
performance grouts can cut down the thermal resistance by 27 %
[7] and reduce the design length of buried pipes by 22 %–37 %
[8]. However, a higher thermal conductivity is not always better.
Remund et al. [9] argued that there was little additional reduction
of the thermal resistance produced when the grout thermal con-
ductivity was above 1.73 W
m1
K1. Zhou et al. [10] built a GHE
heat transfer model and concluded that the optimal thermal con-
ductivity ratio of grouts to soil was 1.2–1.3.
The other aspect of research is focused on enhancing the perfor-
mance experimentally, by adding new substances and changing
the proportion. The most important properties are thermal con-
ductivity and workability. Thermal conductivity directly determi-
nes the system operating efficiency, whereas workability decides
whether the grout is easy to construct. Adding silica sand [11],
reducing the water-to-cement mass ratio [12], optimizing the par-
ticle size distribution [13], and adding high-performance materials
such as graphite, iron tailings, aluminum shavings, fluorspar,
ground glass, silicon carbide, steel grit, and marine dredged soil
can improve the thermal conductivity of the material [14–15].
However, a larger sand-to-cement mass ratio and the addition of
other substances usually have a negative effect on flowability
[16–17]. Additionally, adding a superplasticizer effectively
improves the workability [18]. In addition, strength, permeability,
shrinkage, dry-wet cycle durability, and acid resistance influence
the application of grouts [19–20]. Currently, there are four cate-
gories of grouts: cement-based, bentonite-based, phase change
materials (PCMs), and waste utilization. Bentonite-based grouts
consist of bentonite, sand, and other components, which are cheap
and simple to produce, but they have a low thermal conductivity,
low strength, and are prone to cracking [21]. Cement-based grouts
are suitable for bedrock regions with a higher thermal conductivity
[22], higher strength, lower cost, and a wide range of applications
[23]. PCM is new in energy storage applications and increases the
heat exchange of boreholes [24], but it is less commonly used in
2
practice. Grouts with waste materials recycle industrial or con-
struction waste to improve their properties; however, suitable
waste is not easily obtainable. Recent studies on various types of
grouts are summarized in Table 1.
From the above, extensive research has been conducted on
grouts, but there are still the following points that can be
improved:
(1) Currently, only a small number of scholars tested porosity,
but they have not studied its influence in depth [4,12,25].
Hence, this study investigated the effect of porosity on ther-
mal conductivity and found that porosity can also affect
thermal conductivity, which fills the gap left in porosity
studies.
(2) Current research only found that the thermal conductivity
increases with the sand-to-cement ratio without further
exploring the effects of excessive sand-to-cement ratio.
Therefore, this study tested higher sand-to-cement ratios
and made new discoveries. And grouts properties was
improved material through proportioning.
(3) Only a few studies have been conducted on the thermal con-
ductivity model recently. Jia et al. [38] and Lu et al. [39]
developed models for rock-soil and concrete, respectively,
but these cannot be directly applied to cement-based grouts
due to property differences. Recently, a thermal conductivity
prediction model of cement-based grouts was established
[40], but the expression is very complicated and inconve-
nient for engineering application. Therefore, a series–paral-
lel model was built to predict the thermal conductivity,
enriching the theoretical studies.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Specimen-preparation methods and material properties
The preparation and test flow chart of the grout specimen is
depicted in Fig. 1. The type and parameters of the ingredients used
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al.
Table 1
Studies on various types of grouts.
Category Components Method
Cement-based Silica sand, cement Change proportion
(Experiment)
Limestone, silica, graphite, Add new components
superplasticizer, cement of various ratios
(Experiment)
Silica sand, cement Change proportion
(Experiment)
Quartzite sand, cement Change proportion
(Experiment)
Sand, graphite, bentonite, cement Change proportion
(Experiment)
Silica sand, graphite, cement Add graphite
(Experiment)
Cement and silica sand, gravel Thermal response
testing for cement-
grouted and gravel-
backfilled materials
(Experiment)
Cement, aluminum shavings Adding different
proportions of
aluminum
(Experiment)
Cement, pond ash, fly ash, natural Change proportion
sand (Laboratory and field
experiments)
Bentonite-based Bentonite, quartz sand Add quartz sand with
optimizing pipe
structure (Experiment)
Bentonite, silica sand, graphite Change proportion
(Experiment)
Bentonite, montmorillonite, Change additive
graphite, silica sand content (Experiment)
Bentonite, carbon fiber, quartz sand Change carbon fiber
contents and sand sizes
PCMs 66 % capric- or 34 % lauric acid mix Soil temperature
distribution with
different materials was
compared
(Experiment)
The latent heat of fusion is 190 J∙g1, Numerical simulation
and thermal conductivity is
0.33 W
m1
K1
Decanoic acid (60 %), silica (10 %), Numerical analysis
and expanded graphite with a
thermal conductivity of
1.528 W
m1
K1, and latent heat of
109.2 k J
kg1
Mixed acid composed of decyl acid Experiment and
and lauric acid with a mass ratio of numerical analysis
66:34 for summer, and oleic acid for
winter
Waste Pulverized fuel ash, sand, ground Add new components
utilization glass, fluorspar and change proportion
(Experiment)
Fly ash, natural sand, and steel- Add new components
making slag (Cement-based) and change proportion
(Experiment)
3
Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351
Measured parameters Thermal conductivity Quantity Ref.
(W
m1
K1)/ Result of
Specimens
Thermal conductivity, specific- 1.06–1.79 (Saturated) 9 [25]
heat capacity, and porosity 0.79–1.40
(Dry)
Thermal conductivity, density, 1.50–2.60 9 [11]
compressive strength, bond
strength, and flexural strength
Thermal conductivity, specific- 1.03–1.79 (Saturated) 9 [12]
heat capacity, and porosity 0.43–1.28
(Dry)
Thermal conductivity, unconfined 2.04–2.93 (Saturated) 5 [4]
compression strength, p-wave 1.36–1.85
velocity, porosity, absorption, (Dry)
elastic modulus, and Poisson’s
ratio
Mechanical, thermal, and 1.38–1.64 5 [20]
hydraulic properties, as well as
durability in heating–cooling
cycles
Thermal conductivity and its 2.10 (Without 2 [22]
effect on the temperature graphite)2.59
distribution (With graphite)
Thermal conductivity and 1.8–2.1 2 [26]
temperature
Workability, thermal 1.1–3.7 12 [27]
conductivity, compression
strength, volumetric reduction,
and hydraulic conductivity
Bleeding, flowability, setting time, 1.11–1.46 6 [28]
compressive strength, and
thermal conductivity
Thermal conductivity 0.7–2.0 6 [29]
Thermal conductivity, 0.9–2.3 10 [17]
permeability, plastic viscosity,
flowability, and compression
strength
Swelling potential, thermal 0.8–2.9 23 [16]
conductivity, viscosity, and
salinity effect on volume
reduction
Thermal conductivity, unconfined 1.6–2.2 10 [30]
compressive strength, and
microstructure
Temperature distribution Soil temperature at 1 [31]
0.1 m from pipe’s
central line increased
by 3.5 °C
Temperature distribution, and The BHE length was 1 [32]
coefficient of performance (COP) reduced by 7 %
Temperature distribution, heat The heat exchange was 3 [33]
exchange, and COP lifted by 22 %. and the
thermal influence
radius dropped by 10 %
Temperature distribution, and The thermal 2 [34]
heat exchange interference radius was
reduced by 14 %, and
heat transfer increased
by 28 %
Thermal conductivity 0.6–2.7 (Saturated)0.3– 21 [21]
1.5
(Dry)
Flowability, bleeding test, setting 2.0–2.4 (Saturated)0.9– 7 [35]
time, unconfined compressive 1.2
strength, thermal conductivity, (Dry)
and permeability
(continued on next page)
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al. Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

Table 1 (continued)

Category Components Method Measured parameters Thermal conductivity Quantity Ref.

(W
m1
K1)/ Result of
Specimens
Silica, limestone, electric arc furnace Add new components Compressive strength, thermal 1.0–2.0 13 [36]
slag, as well as construction and and change proportion conductivity, and porosity
demolition waste (Cement-based) (Experiment)
Basic oxygen furnace, silica sand, as Add new components Thermal conductivity (ground), 2.2–2.58 (Apparent 4 [37]
well as construction and demolition and thermal response and borehole thermal resistance thermal conductivity of
waste (Cement-based) test (Experiment) the ground)

Fig. 1. Specimen preparation process.

in the experiment are listed in Table 2. All values are taken at room
Table 3
temperature of 25 °C, and subsequent tests were conducted at Mix proportions of specimens.
room temperature.
Specimen water-to- Sand-to-cement ratio Sand-to-cement ratio
To investigate the thermal conductivities of cement-based
no. cement ratio (Silica sand) (River sand)
grouts with various water-to-cement and sand-to-cement ratios,
1–1 0.50 0.5 0.0
25 different mix proportions were selected as listed in Table 3.
1–2 0.50 1.0 0.0
1–3 0.50 1.5 0.0
2.2. Workability test 1–4 0.50 2.0 0.0
2–1 0.55 0.5 0.0
2–2 0.55 1.0 0.0
Flowability is a key property indicating grout workability. If the 2–3 0.55 1.5 0.0
flowability is poor, it will cause problems such as clogging of the 2–4 0.55 2.0 0.0
grouting pump or pipe, which will also lead to the cement mortar 2–5 0.55 2.5 0.0
not filling densely and make too many cracks in the molding spec- 3–1 0.60 0.5 0.0
3–2 0.60 1.0 0.0
imen. The technical code for application of cementitious grout (GB/T
3–3 0.60 1.5 0.0
50448–2015) describes the test method of truncated cone flowa- 3–4 0.60 2.0 0.0
3–5 0.60 2.5 0.0
4–1 0.60 0.0 0.5
Table 2 4–2 0.60 0.0 1.0
Type and properties of ingredients. 4–3 0.60 0.0 1.5
4–4 0.60 0.0 2.0
Composition Type/Size Density Thermal conductivity
4–5 0.60 0.0 2.5
(g
cm3) (W
m1
K1)
5–1 0.65 0.5 0.0
Cement PO.42.5 Portland cement 3.10 1.55 (non-porous) 5–2 0.65 1.0 0.0
Silica sand 0.6–1.0 mm particle size 2.64 7.70 5–3 0.65 1.5 0.0
River sand 0.6–1.0 mm particle size 1.70 3.50 5–4 0.65 2.0 0.0
Water Distilled water 0.997 0.609 5–5 0.65 2.5 0.0

4
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al.
Fig. 2. Slump Cone.
bility [41]. A slump cone with dimensions of 36 mm diameter at
the upper bottom, 60 mm diameter at the lower bottom, and
60 mm height was used for this experiment, as shown in Fig. 2.
First, the grout mix is poured into the cone until it is completely
filled. Next, the grout is allowed to spread by lifting the slump
cone. The spread diameters in orthogonal directions are measured
and the average spread diameter is calculated.
2.3. Thermal conductivity test
2.3.1. Method and theory
The thermal conductivity measurement methods are divided
into steady-state and transient methods. The former is derived
from Fourier’s law based on the measured temperature gradient
and heat flow through the sample once the temperature in the
sample has become constant; therefore, a long time is needed to
bring the interior to a steady state. To reduce the stabilization time,
many instruments require small specimen sizes, even in powder
form, which are not suitable for solid cement. If the test time is sig-
nificantly long, the internal moisture migration or moisture con-
tent of the water-bearing material will change, inducing
inaccurate measurement results [42]. The latter has a shorter test
time and accurate results, including hot-wire, hot-strip, plane
source, laser flash, and optical scanning methods, as well as differ-
ential scanning calorimetry.
Herein, the transient plane source method is adopted because of
its short test time, high accuracy, large measurement range, and
easy sample preparation [43]. The measured sample is regarded
as a semi-infinite wall, as shown in Fig. 3, of which the initial tem-
perature is uniform. A steady heat flow is added to the wall (the
plane at position  = 0) when s = 0, and its temperature distribu-
tion is.
Fig. 3. Semi-infinite flat wall.
5
Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351
pffiffiffiffiffiffi
2 asqw x
hðx; sÞ ¼ ierfcð pffiffiffiffiffiffiÞ; ð1Þ
k 2 as
where, h(x, s) represents the excess temperature of the object at
position  and time s, compared to the initial temperature; s is the
time (s); a is the thermal diffusivity of the object (m2
s1); k is the
thermal conductivity (W
m1
K1); qw is the heat flux of the plane
heat source in the  direction (W
m2); x is the location where the
temperature is measured (m); ierfcð2pxffiffiffi ffiÞ is the one integral of the
as
R1
Gaussian error complement function, withierfcðuÞ ¼ u erfcðv Þdv .
At time s1 and position , the excess temperature, h(x, s1), is
recorded. At time s2, the excess temperature at the heat source sur-
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
face, h(0, s2), is recorded. Wheny ¼ x=2 as1 , the following equa-
tion can be derived:
rffiffiffiffiffi
s2 hðx; s1 Þ 1
ierfcðyÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffi ; ð2Þ
s1 hð0; s2 Þ p
where, s1 and s2 are the times when the temperature at posi-
tions  and zero (heat source plane) are recorded respectively,
usually s1 = s2 (s).
The parameters on the right side of Eq. (2) are all experimen-
tally measured. After ierfc(y) is calculated, the value of y can be
obtained. Subsequently, thermal diffusivity can be calculated as.
x2
a¼ : ð3Þ
4s1 y2
The thermal conductivity is derived by Eq. (4).
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2qw as2 1
k¼ pffiffiffiffi ð4Þ
hð0; s2 Þ p
2.3.2. Equipment
The ‘‘Unsteady thermal conductivity tester” developed by Har-
bin Institute of Technology is adopted to measure the thermal con-
ductivity, which is divided into the ‘‘testing part” and ‘‘heating
part”. The heating part is composed of an adjustable voltage power,
a heater (plane heat source), and switch, as depicted in Fig. 4. The
testing part is composed of two thermal resistors, which can test
the temperature, T1 and T2. The upper and lower parts of the spec-
imen are two thick specimens, and in the middle is a thin one, and
the thermal resistors are sandwiched between the specimens, as
illustrated in Fig. 4. The heater corresponds to the plane heat
source qw shown in Fig. 3, with T1 corresponding to h (x, s1) and
T2 corresponding to h(0, s2). A glass shield covers the specimen
to prevent the influence of external temperature changes on the
temperature field of the specimen.
The information on the relevant test equipment is shown in
Table 4, and the error analysis of the measurement results is listed
in the Appendix.
2.3.3. Measurement error
To verify the accuracy of this test method, the thermal conduc-
tivity of a polystyrene sheet, plexiglass sheet, and floor filler mortar
were also tested and compared with the reference values (from
information or values measured using the steady-state method),
as shown in Table 5. This method can guarantee accuracy in a wide
range, and the testing errors for different materials do not exceed
7 %. Other studies have also tested a variety of materials using this
method with an error of no more than 5 % [44–45].
2.3.4. Error reduction
The transient plane heat source method is based on the solution
of the heat conduction equation of the object with infinite thick-
ness. However, the actual specimens are of finite thickness. It is
necessary to ensure that the heat flow (x direction) from the heat
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al. Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram and actual photo of the experimental setup. (a) Schematic diagram of the device; (b) Actual photo of the device.

Table 4
Parameters of the test equipment.

Parameter Equipment Range Uncertainty Number

Temperature (T1 and T2) PT100 thermal resistor 0–100 ℃ ±0.1 ℃ 2
Voltage DC stabilized power supply 0–60 V 0.2 % 1
Electric current DC stabilized power supply 0–1 A 0.2 % 1
Size/flowability Vernier caliper 0–200 mm ±0.02 mm 1
Mass Electronic Balance 0–10 kg ±0.05 kg 1

h
Table 5 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 6 0:4: ð6Þ
Test comparison relative error. 2 ase
Specimens Polystyrene Plexiglass Floor filler After calculation and testing, it is concluded that h = 20–30 mm
sheet sheet mortar (Dry)
and H1 = 100 mm are appropriate for various ratios of specimens,
Values tested by this method 0.032 0.1724 1.13 and a test time of 8–12 min is proper.
(W
m1
K1) The contact surface between specimens should be flat, smooth,
Reference values of thermal 0.030 0.1738 1.08
conductivity (W
m1
K1)
and tightly jointed, to avoid the gap generating contact thermal
Test comparison relative error 6.7 % 0.8 % 4.6 % resistance, which may result in an error. Hence, the contact sur-
faces of the specimens need to be close to each other until the
gap is no longer visible, as shown in Fig. 5(a) and (c). As shown
source has not been transmitted to the top surface of the specimen in Fig. 5(c), the thermal resistance between the two specimens
within the test time. Otherwise, the original hypothesis is going to may also lead to a tiny gap between the specimens. Therefore, add-
be destroyed consequent to being affected by external conditions. ing a groove in the middle of the specimen is necessary, as exhib-
Therefore, the heating time should not be significantly long. More- ited in Fig. 5(d), in which the thin film thermal resistor can be
over, an appropriate test duration improves the accuracy of results. embedded, for the two specimens to have a close contact.
The effective test time can be controlled with the following for-
mula [46].
2.4. Porosity test
2
0:085ðh þ H1 Þ
se ¼ ; ð5Þ The porosity of concrete material refers to the percentage of
a the pore volume in bulk material to apparent volume. Pore char-
where, h and H1 are the thicknesses of the middle and upper acteristics are usually obtained indirectly from physical measure-
specimen (m), respectively, as seen in Fig. 4(a); a is the thermal dif- ments or by using digital image processing and analysis [47],
fusivity (m2/s), which is estimated early; se is the effective test such as gas adsorption techniques, mercury intrusion porosime-
time (s). ter, and water adsorption (belonging to physical measurements);
The size of the specimen needs to make both the x- and y- as well as X-ray tomography, small-angle scattering technique,
directions meet the infinite condition; therefore, Eq. (6) should scanning electron microscopy, and computed microtomography
be satisfied [46]. (belonging to digital image methods). Except for the water
6
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al. Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

Fig. 5. Treatment of specimens: (a) & (c) Specimens in close contact; (b) Tiny gap in the contact surface; (d) Groove.

Fig. 6. Porosity test set-up: (a) Vacuum-saturation device; (b) Measurement of the specimen suspended in water.

7
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al.
adsorption method, these methods focus on measuring parame-
ters such as pore size distribution and specific surface area, which
are not required in this study and cannot cover the wide pore-
size range of cement-based materials for a limited measuring
range [48]. Herein, the water adsorption method is employed
according to ASTMC642-2013 because it can test a wide range
of pore sizes and is suitable for engineering applications due to
its simple operation.
The device is displayed in Fig. 6(a). First, the dry specimens are
placed into a vacuum tank without water. When valve-1 is opened
and valve-2 is closed, vacuuming is maintained for 12 h to ensure
that air is removed from the pores. Subsequently, the inlet of the
water injection pipe is immersed in distilled water before valve-1
is closed and valve-2 is opened. The distilled water enters the vac-
uum tank under atmospheric pressure, and the specimens are
soaked for 12 h. The water then fills all the pores, and the speci-
mens are in the saturated state.
The porosity can be expressed by.
V p ðm2  m3 Þ=qw m2  m3
e¼ ¼ ¼ ; ð7Þ
V ðm2  m1 Þ=qw m2  m1
where m1, m2, and m3 represent the masses (kg) of the saturated
sample suspended in water, saturated but surface-dry sample in
air, and totally dried sample, respectively; Vp is the total volume
of pores in the measured sample (m3); V is the apparent volume
of the sample (m3); qw is the density of water (m3
kg1); and e is
the porosity of the sample. The measurement device of m1 is
shown in Fig. 6(b).
Fig. 7. Changes in flowability, thermal conductivity, and porosity: (a) porosity, (b) flowability, (c) saturated thermal conductivity, and (d) dry thermal conductivity variations.
8
Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effects of sand-to-cement and water-to-cement ratios
3.1.1. Workability
Flowability is a key parameter for measuring the workability of
cement-based grouts, and a low flowability will lead to grouting
difficulty. As shown in Fig. 7(a), the larger the sand-to-cement ratio
the lower the flowability, and the larger the water-to-cement ratio
the higher the flowability. Therefore, excessive silica sand has an
adverse effect on flowability, and more water is beneficial for
improving the flowability. However, the water-to-cement ratio
should not be significantly large, otherwise, the delamination phe-
nomenon will occur.
In the case of a water-to-cement ratio of 0.55–0.65, when the
sand-to-cement ratio goes up to 2.5, the flowability is close to
60 mm, a value that is equals to the diameter of the bottom surface
of the slump cone, meaning the grout almost loses its flowability
and cannot be applied.
3.1.2. Thermal conductivity
Because the thermal conductivity of silica sand is significantly
higher than that of cement mortar, the addition of silica sand will
increase the overall thermal conductivity, as shown in Fig. 7(c) and
(d), indicating that it is feasible to improve the thermal conductiv-
ity by increasing the sand-to-cement ratio. A thermal conductivity
of 2.10 W/m1
K1 was obtained in the saturated state when the
sand-to-cement ratio was equals to 1.5 and water-to-cement ratio
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al.
Fig. 8. Specimens: (a) sand-to-cement ratio = 2.5; (b) sand-to-cement ratio = 1.0.
was equals to 0.5, which is higher than the values of cement-based
grout without new materials, reported in recent studies, such as
2.076 W/m1
K1 in [14] and 1.46 W/m1
K1 in [28].
When the water-to-cement ratio is 0.55 and sand-to-cement
ratio changes from 2.0 to 2.5, there is a decrease in thermal con-
ductivity, which is due to the sharp decline in flowability caused
by excessive sand, resulting in the material being difficult to use
to fill the mold densely and uniformly under natural conditions.
Thus, more bubbles and fissures appear in the specimen. As exhib-
ited in Fig. 8, when the sand-to-cement ratio = 1.0, the specimen is
dense with a smooth surface and no bubbles visible, and when the
sand-to-cement ratio is 2.5, cracks and bubbles appear on the spec-
imen. Additionally, the same situation occurs when the sand-to-
cement ratio changes from 1.5 to 2.0 (water-to-cement ratio is
0.50), and when the sand-to-cement ratio is 2.5 (water-to-
cement ratio = 0.50) the flowability is poor such that the specimen
cannot be manufactured. Therefore, significantly high sand-to-
cement ratio and porosity values are not conducive to thermal con-
ductivity; this has not been studied in depth by other scholars
[11,25,28].
3.1.3. Porosity
The porosity of cement-based materials has a notable influence
on compressive strength [49], permeability [50], and thermal con-
ductivity. An increase in porosity also increases the permeability of
the grouts and adds the potential for groundwater contamination
[51]. According to the relationship between geotechnical soil and
permeability given by Ding et al. [52], when the porosity exceeds
0.43, the permeability increases rapidly with the porosity increase
of, and the permeability is significantly small with an average of
1.31  107 m2 when the porosity is below 0.43. The porosity of
underground geomaterial ranges from 0.2146 to 0.4764 [38], and
the porosity of grout should be less than that of surrounding
rock-soil, to avoid groundwater contamination caused by high per-
meability. Therefore, the porosity of cement-based grouts should
not be too high, preferably below 0.4300.
The porosity also has a significant effect on thermal conductiv-
ity. As depicted in Fig. 7(b), the porosity decreases with the
increasing sand-to-cement ratio and rises with the increasing
water-to-cement ratio. The porosity of silica sand measured in this
experiment is 0.0415, which is lower than that of cement; there-
fore, the overall porosity decreases as the sand-to-cement ratio
9
Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351
increases. With the water-to-cement ratio increasing, the volume
occupied by water becomes larger when the specimen is formed,
and after the water evaporates completely, the space originally
occupied by water becomes pore space, resulting in a gain in
porosity. Simultaneously, the pores are filled with water or air,
whose thermal conductivity is significantly lower than the thermal
conductivity of cement, as shown in Table 2. Hence, a large poros-
ity decreases the thermal conductivity.
Porosity can be reduced in various means, such as 1) optimizing
the aggregate particle size distribution to realize the maximum
packing density and improve the overall compactness of the mate-
rial, 2) conducting vibrations to make the material more compact
and diminish the macroscopic pores, and 3) minimizing the
water-to-cement ratio to ensure flowability.
3.2. Effects of sand type
The commonly used fine aggregate for cement-based material is
sand, and different sand types have different properties. River sand
is often selected in building materials; however, silica sand is con-
sidered to have better properties. The performance of river and sil-
ica sand as fine aggregate respectively is tested, as displayed in
Fig. 9. At a water-to-cement ratio of 0.60, the flowability of both
silica- and river sand materials decreases with rising sand-to-
cement ratio, but the flowability of silica sand material is higher
than that of river sand at the same ratio. Additionally, the porosity
of silica sand material can reduce porosity by 2.6 %–4.5 % relative
to river sand material, improve thermal conductivity by 12 %–
23 %, and have higher density, indicating that the silica sand as
an aggregate can significantly improve the performance of the
material, especially thermal conductivity.
3.3. Discussion of thermal conductivity change
3.3.1. Model of the thermal conductivity of grouts
The apparent properties of a multiphase system depend on the
individual properties and volume fraction of each phase. To ana-
lyze the mechanism of the thermal conductivity, and change of
materials, many scholars have explored the composition, structure,
and thermal conductivity of materials and established thermal
conductivity models to reveal the reasons for the change in ther-
mal conductivity with composition, saturation, and porosity. Com-
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al. Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

Fig. 9. Influence of the type of aggregates.

Fig. 10. Series–parallel model of cement-based grouts.

pared to empirical or statistical models, mechanistic (physical- 4) There is only one-dimensional heat conduction inside the
based) models, such as the series–parallel model, offer a far better material [40].
understanding of the heat transfer in multiphase materials [53].
The series–parallel model makes the following assumptions about According to the homogenization theory, the bulk thermal con-
the material: ductivity of a multiphase mixture cannot exceed limits (Weiner
bounds) given by an upper bound having the individual phases
1) The phases in the material are uniformly distributed. in parallel and a lower bound having the individual phases in series
2) Neither the solid nor the liquid phases in the model contain [54], as expressed by Eq. (8).
pores [38]. X Ui 1 X
3) The thermal conductivity of each phase of the grout does not ð Þ ¼ kLm 6 ke 6 kUm ¼ Ui
ki ; ð8Þ
change with temperature. ki

10
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al. Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

Fig. 11. The upper and lower boundaries of grouts and the variation law of thermal conductivity.

where, ke is the thermal conductivity of the materials calculated For the upper bound, the components form a parallel relation-
by the model (W
m1
K1); ki is the thermal conductivity of phase ship of heat flow, as illustrated in Fig. 10, and the thermal conduc-
i; kLm and kUm are the lower and upper Wiener bounds (W/
m1
K1), tivity is.
respectively, which can be reached when all components of con-
kLm ¼ Uc
kc þ Us
ks þ Uw
kw þ Ua
ka
crete are arranged in series and parallel; Ui is the volume fraction ð1eÞ ð12Þ
of phase i. ¼ uþ1
kc þ ð1 eÞu
uþ1
ks þ e
x
kw þ e
ð1  xÞ
ka
The thermal conductivity of the material is generally between
Substituting Eqs. (10) and (12) into Eq. (9), the thermal conduc-
kLm andkUm . Therefore, a coefficient is needed to measure the ratio tivity of the grouts can be obtained as Eq.. The thermal conductiv-
of the series and parallel parts [55], and subsequently, the thermal ity of each component can be found in Table 2. In addition, the air
conductivity can be expressed as: thermal conductivity is taken as 0.0267 W
m1
K1.
ke ¼ gkLm þ ð1  gÞkUm ; ð9Þ ke ¼ g½kð1 eÞ u
þ ksð1 eÞ
þ ek
wx þ e
ð1 xÞ

1
c
ðuþ1Þ ðuþ1Þ ka
ð13Þ
where, g is the coefficient whose value ranges from 0 to 1. þð1  gÞ½ð1eÞ u ð1eÞ
uþ1
kc þ uþ1
ks þ e
x
kw þ e
ð1  xÞ
ka 
For cement-based grouts, water or air exists within the pores of
the grouts; therefore, the specimen is a three-phase mixture of
solid, liquid (water), and gas (air), and the solid phase consists of
a cement matrix and silica sand.
For the lower bound: silica sand, cement, air, and water form a
series relationship of heat flow, as demonstrated in Fig. 10, and the
thermal conductivity is.
1
Uc Us Uw Ua
kLm ¼ ð þ þ þ Þ
kc ks kw ka
ð1  eÞ ð1  eÞu e
x e
ð1  xÞ 1
¼½ þ þ þ  ; ð10Þ
kc
ðu þ 1Þ ks ðu þ 1Þ kw ka
whereUc ; Us ; Uw ,Us and Ua are the volume fractions of cement,
silica sand, water, and air, respectively; kc, ks, kw, and ka are the
thermal conductivities (W
m1
K1) of cement, silica sand, water,
and air, respectively; e is the porosity; u is the sand-to-cement vol-
ume ratio, which can be calculated using Eq. (11); x is the satura-
tion degree.

u ¼ lqc =qs ; ð11Þ

where, l is the sand-to-cement ratio; qc and qs are the densities

of cement and silica sand, respectively, whose values are listed in
Table 2. Fig. 12. Calculation accuracy of the series–parallel model.

11
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al. Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

Fig. 13. Variation of thermal conductivity: (a) Relationship between the thermal conductivity, sand-to-cement ratio and porosity, and value area; (b) Relationship between
thermal conductivity, saturation, and sand-to-cement ratio; (c) Effect of thermal conductivity change of a single component.

3.3.2. Analysis and application
The thermal conductivity of the specimens should be between
kLm andkUm , and Eq. (13) is used to calculate and analyze the thermal
conductivity variation of the grouts. As illustrated in Fig. 11, both
the upper and lower bounds increase with the sand-to-cement
ratio, the upper bound changes more obviously, and then the over-
all change rate tends to slow down. The experimental data at a
sand-to-cement ratio of 2.0 and water-to-cement ratio of 0.60 in
the saturated state are chosen as the benchmark to find the appro-
priate g. As shown in Fig. 11, the test data are located between the

12
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al.
upper and lower bounds, but closer to the lower bound. Addition-
ally, the calculated value is in good agreement with the experimen-
tal data when g = 0.87 with a maximum error of less than 8 %, and
the model can accurately reflect the law of thermal conductivity
change, denoting that in heat conduction, the components in the
cement-based grouts mainly exist in the series relationship of heat
flow.
The grout is in saturation due to the presence of groundwater.
Therefore, the accuracy analysis is performed only for the data in
saturation. As plotted in Fig. 12, when g = 0.87, this series–parallel
model can calculate the thermal conductivity precisely, with most
of the errors not exceeding 10 %.
In Fig. 10, the change of any one component property will lead
to a change in the overall property. If the porosity increases, it
becomes equivalent to an increase in water content in the satu-
rated state, and the thermal conductivity of water becomes lower.
The thermal conductivity of the upper or lower bound will
decrease accordingly. In Fig. 13(a), the higher the porosity, the
lower the thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of silica
sand is higher than that of other components; therefore, the ther-
mal conductivity of both the upper and lower bounds increases,
and the overall effective thermal conductivity of the material also
increases.
Besides, it is normal for the thermal conductivity of grouts to be
slightly higher than that of the surrounding geomaterials. The geo-
materials contain clay, sand, shale, limestone, sandstone, and other
materials, which have a thermal conductivity above 1.4 W
m1-

K1; therefore, the thermal conductivity of grouts is taken to be
above 1.7 W
m1
K1. A significantly high sand-to-cement ratio
will lead to poor flowability, whereas a significantly low sand-to-
cement ratio will lead to high porosity and low thermal conductiv-
ity. Hence, according to the experimental results, it is fitting to
curb the sand-to-cement ratio from 1.5 to 2.2. The porosity of
cement-based grouts is between 0.20 and 0.43 according to Sec-
tion 3.1.3. Consequently, the values of common cement-based
grouts should fall in the ‘‘cement-based grouts value area” as
marked in Fig. 13(a).
The thermal conductivity of water is significantly higher than
that of air. Hence, under the condition of a certain porosity, the
higher the water content is, the higher the effective thermal con-
ductivity. From the predicted results of the model in Fig. 13(b),
the thermal conductivity increases slowly with saturation when
the saturation is less than 0.8 and spurts rapidly when the satura-
tion is greater than 0.8. Therefore, the increase in saturation is ben-
eficial for improving the thermal conductivity of the material, and
the saturation needs to be kept at a high level (greater than 0.8).
As shown in Fig. 13(c), when the thermal conductivity of the
aggregate (sand) rises, the thermal conductivity of the material
grows at a gradually decreasing growth rate. When the thermal
conductivity of the aggregate is exactly equal to that of cement,
the change in the sand-to-cement ratio does not affect the thermal
conductivity, i.e., the intersection of the curves in Fig. 13(c). When
the thermal conductivity of the aggregate is lower than that of
cement, the increase in the sand-to-cement ratio will result in a
diminishing thermal conductivity of the material. When the ther-
mal conductivity of the aggregate is higher than that of cement,
the thermal conductivity increases with an increase in the sand-
to-cement ratio.
4. Conclusions
Grout material is used to seal the annulus zone between a GSHP
underground heat exchanger and borehole, and its thermal con-
ductivity is critical to the heat transfer efficiency of the GSHP.
The properties of cement-based grouts are tested and a series–par-
allel model was developed. The main conclusions are as follows.
13
Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351
(1) Increasing the sand-to-cement ratio enhances the thermal
conductivity and reduces the porosity, which leads to a
decrease in flowability. The maximum thermal conductivity
reaches 2.10 W
m1
K1 in the saturated state. However,
when the sand-to-cement ratio is higher than 2.0 (water-
to-cement ratio = 0.55), more fissures appear inside the
material, which in turn weakens the thermal conductivity.
(2) Increasing the water-to-cement ratio increases the porosity
and then weakens the thermal conductivity. A significantly
high porosity means a larger permeability and poor thermal
performance; therefore, the porosity should not exceed 0.43.
(3) The series–parallel model can accurately predict the thermal
conductivity with an error of less than 10 %. Results show
that improving the sand-to-cement ratio, maintaining high
saturation, reducing the porosity, and using high-
performance aggregates can improve the thermal conductiv-
ity of the material. The value zone of grouts is outlined
according to the ratio and porosity range of common grouts,
and the thermal conductivity increases when saturation is
below 0.8 and increases steeply when the saturation exceeds
0.8. More addition of aggregates is only effective when its
thermal conductivity is higher than that of the cement
(1.55 W
m1
K1).
(4) Silica sand can improve the flowability of cement-based
grouts, enhance thermal conductivity by 12 %–23 %, and
reduce porosity by 2.6 %–4.5 % relative to river sand
material.
There are still improvements that can be made. For example,
the permeability was not directly measured through experiments,
nor the durability of grouts. In addition, there is often groundwater
in the borehole, and the effects of groundwater and ground tem-
perature on cement forming were not analyzed. Subsequent stud-
ies can be conducted in more depth on permeability, durability,
and the effects of groundwater and temperature.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Shihao Dong: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation,
Writing – original draft. Guang Liu: Resources, Writing – review
& editing, Supervision. Tao Zhan: Project administration, Writing
– review & editing, Supervision. Yang Yao: Project administration,
Funding acquisition. Long Ni: Writing – review & editing, Supervi-
sion, Project administration, Funding acquisition.
Data availability
The data that has been used is confidential.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Heilongjiang Province Key R&D
Program Guidance Category Projects (GZ20210197).
Appendix A. . Uncertainty analysis
The uncertainty of direct measurement parameters, such as the
temperature, size, mass, and flowability, are listed in Table 4. For
the function relation Q = f (x, y, z), where the uncertainties of ,
S. Dong, G. Liu, T. Zhan et al. Energy & Buildings 272 (2022) 112351

y, and z are independent and random, the uncertainty transfer [22] C. Lee, M. Park, S. Min, S.-H. Kang, B. Sohn, H. Choi, Comparison of effective
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 2  2  2 situ thermal response tests, Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 77–83.
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