This research aims to enhance the efficiency of commercial air conditioning systems, which is essential in reducing energy consumption and minimizing environmental impact in urban areas. It represents an important contribution to the literature on sustainable cooling solutions for commercial buildings, with a particular focus on the use of ground-source heat exchangers (GHX) as a replacement for conventional cooling towers in commercial air conditioning systems. The study investigated the viability and effectiveness of a vertical ground source refrigeration (GSR) system for cooling a 7300 m2 office building using seven distinct GHX designs, including two novel configurations − Spiral-shaped with double pipes (DST) and Spiral-double-shaped with double pipes (DSDT) − under varying flow regimes, borehole depths, and cooling loads. Three-dimensional, transient, and conjugated finite volume simulations using ANSYS software were performed to compare the thermo-hydraulic performance of series and parallel flow GHX configurations under different operating scenarios. The results demonstrated that parallel flow GHX designs, such as DST and DSDT, outperformed their series flow counterparts. At a flow rate of 14.3 L/min, the DST and DSDT GHXs achieved a heat removal rate of 9.36 kW and 9.25 kW per borehole, respectively. This resulted in a temperature reduction of 9.39 °C and 9.28 °C, which improved cooling efficiency by about 18.31 % and 17.73 %, respectively, compared to the system with cooling tower. In comparison, the single U-shaped (UT) GHX achieved a heat removal rate of 5.21 kW per borehole and a temperature reduction of 5.23 °C, along with maintaining the cooling efficiency at the manufacturer standards. To dissipate 1100 kW of heat, 124, 119, and 211 boreholes are needed for the SDT, DSDT, and UT GHXs, respectively |
