Ground-source loops, sized right
U-loop outlet temperature across the full laminar-to-turbulent range, cross-checked against COMSOL Multiphysics (an independent commercial simulator) with the same internal-film physics.
What the model solves
| System | Single U-loop borehole / ground-source heat exchanger |
|---|---|
| Physics | Conjugate heat transfer with internal convective film and Darcy–Weisbach pressure drop |
| Sweep | Carrier-fluid flow from laminar to turbulent |
| Validation reference | COMSOL Multiphysics (same internal-film physics) |
| Output tracked | Loop outlet temperature and pressure drop |
| Agreement vs COMSOL | Within 0.38 °C across the flow range; 0.08 °C at the design point |
Outlet temperature across the whole flow range
A borehole heat exchanger is a vertical U-loop buried in the ground. Carrier fluid is pumped down one leg and back up the other, harvesting heat from the soil along the way. The temperature it leaves with sets the heat-pump duty, and it depends on the internal-film physics inside the pipe as the flow shifts from laminar to turbulent.
Terra resolves the coupled pipe↔soil heat exchange directly, so the outlet temperature follows the same internal-film behaviour as COMSOL across the entire operating range. At the design point the two agree to 0.08 °C, and they stay within 0.38 °C of each other from laminar through turbulent flow. That margin is what lets you size a ground loop with confidence rather than padding it for safety.
The collector, in three dimensions
The full serpentine collector and its supply / return risers, 4 m down in the ground, floating above a translucent slice of the soil temperature it produces — the embedded 1-D pipe network and the 3-D ground on one shared temperature scale.
A buried ground collector, solved hour by hour
The actual Terra finite-element ground-temperature field around a serpentine ground-heat-recovery collector over its first 24-hour operating cycle — cross-validated against COMSOL to within about 0.1 °C.
Sweep the design and watch outlet temperature move
Drag the key inputs and the predicted loop performance updates in real time — the surrogate evaluates thousands of candidate designs as fast as you can move a slider.
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