Influence of pervious pavement systems on heat dissipation from a horizontal geothermal system

Abstract

Due to increasing energy demands, leading countries have focused on finding renewable energy sources. Geothermal Energy is a renewable, efficient, reliable and proven energy source for heating and cooling buildings. Among all the geothermal heat exchanger systems, geothermal paving systems couple the benefits of a permeable pavement system and a horizontal heat exchanger. This paper analyses the influence of different paving surfaces and sub-bases on the thermal performance of pavement section using a newly developed laboratory test. According to the temperature profiles observed, porous asphalt surface and limestone gravel sub-base combine to produce a system which insulates the most under ambient air conditions, while interlocked concrete block pavement surface and plastic cell sub-base dissipated the most heat.

Keywords:

• evaporation
• geothermal
• heat
• permeable pavement system
• renewable energy

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness which funded this study through the research project BIA2009-08272. We also wish to thank the Highways Research Group (GCS) of the University of Cantabria and companies Bloques Montserrat SL, SENOR SA and Danosa for their collaboration. Luis A. Sañudo-Fontaneda also thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the FPI fellowship.