A geothermal heatpipe prototype

Master thesis (2019)

Authors

P.P.J. Zijm Mechanical Engineering

Contributors

B.J. Boersma Process and Energy (mentor)
R. Delfos Support Process and Energy (mentor)
Pejman Shoeibi Omrani TNO (mentor)
A. Twerda Energy Technology - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (mentor)
Faculty
Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Copyright: © 2019 Peter Zijm
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Published Date

30-01-2019

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Heatpipes are promising devices for geothermal energy extraction owing to their
effectiveness to transport heat. The goal of this research is to validate an analytical heatpipe model with experiments and to investigate the difficulties in designing and constructing geothermal heatpipes. There is a lack of literature and research concerning the operation, performance limits and construction of heatpipes suitable for geothermal heat extraction. A prototype heatpipe is designed based on specifications for geothermal energy extraction and constructed in a laboratory set-up with sensors and data acquisition. The prototype setup collects experimental data and is used to evaluate important parameters, requirements and practical design difficulties. This research shows the difficulties in designing a geothermal heatpipe taking into account fluid choice and physical limitations as well as complications in constructing a properly sealed heatpipe under the influence of repeated heating and cooling. Furthermore it shows the limitations of the analytical model by comparing the model predictions with experimental data.