Numerical Study on Improving the Efficiency of the Earth Pipe Cooling System

Earth pipe cooling (EPC) is one of the passive cooling systems which has proven to be a very energy efficient sustainable cooling technique for the sub-tropical areas. This cooling system uses the soil as a medium of heat transfer. Efficiency of this system largely depends on the velocity of the cooling air, shape of the cooling space, pattern of the walls in cooling space, inlet size and position of the incoming air. It is well-known that increasing the velocity of the cooling air will improve the efficiency of the cooling system. Therefore, this study focused on the optimization of the shape and pattern of the inlet which might improve the efficiency of the cooling system. ANSYS Fluent is used to perform this simulation-based study. It is found that inclusion of aerofoil shaped turbulator in the inlet cross sectional area provide better circulation of the air inside the cooling space, thus, enhance the effectiveness of the system.