A review of grout materials in geothermal energy applications

Abstract

Ground heat exchangers are surrounded by grout material, making it one of the most important components in geothermal energy applications since it significantly affects the system's thermal performance. The current study reviews the different types of grout materials and compares their thermophysical properties. The most critical parameter is the grout's thermal conductivity in which it always presents a proportional relation with the system's efficiency. Numerous factors are involved in this review to ascertain theier impact on the grouts’ performance such as flowability, shrinkage, moisture content, freezing, heat capacity, strength, permeability, solubility and thermal imbalance. The different grouts compared are bentonite, cement, sand, graphite, controlled low-strength material, dolomite, and phase change materials. The literature shows that phase change materials are the best choices of grouting since they can provide high storage capacity, stability and temperature uniformity. The major problem of such materials is their low thermal conductivity. Thus, it is recommended to use composite phase change materials to enhance their thermal conductivity and increase the storage/retrieval rate.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijft.2021.100070
Divisions: College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Engineering and Technology > Mechanical, Biomedical & Design
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences
Additional Information: © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
Uncontrolled Keywords: Backfill material,Borehole heat exchanger,Geothermal energy,Ground heat exchanger,Grout material,Grouting,Mechanical Engineering,Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes,Condensed Matter Physics
Publication ISSN: 2666-2027
Last Modified: 19 Mar 2024 08:24
Date Deposited: 15 Mar 2021 09:23
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
https://www.sci ... 0082?via%3Dihub (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2021-05
Published Online Date: 2021-02-11
Accepted Date: 2021-02-01
Authors: Mahmoud, Montaser
Ramadan, Mohamad
Pullen, Keith
Abdelkareem, Mohammad Ali
Wilberforce, Tabbi (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-1250-1745)
Olabi, Abdul Ghani
Naher, Sumsun

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