Optimization of ground heat exchanger of the ground source heat pump system based on exergetic analysis using Taguchi technique

Abstract

The present research work focuses on the optimization of the ground heat exchanger of the Ground source heat pump system for heating application based on exergetic analysis using the Taguchi method. For this work, we select four influencing factors such as the mass flow rate of water (A), the specific heat of water (B), inlet temperature (C) of water to and outlet temperature of water (D) from the ground heat exchanger at three levels. An L9 orthogonal array was selected for experimental trials and in each trial, we calculate the exergy destruction for the ground heat exchanger, thereafter using statistical software Minitab, we get signal to noise ratios based on smaller is better criterion. After analyzing the response table of Taguchi results, we get the optimum level of all the factors. The ANOVA technique was also applied for getting the most significant factors which affect the output results by calculating the percentage contribution of each factor. According to our results, the best combination of all the four factors for exergetic destruction of the ground heat exchanger was A3B1C1D3 and the most influencing factor was inlet water temperature with a contribution factor of 56.03%.