Abstract
Thermal performance parameters for a ground-coupled warehouse cooling system with an underground Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tank are investigated in this study. The system comprises a warehouse, a cooling unit, and an underground TES tank. A MATLAB program was created to evaluate the system's performance on an hourly basis, considering various design parameters and operational conditions. To solve the hourly heat transfer to the surrounding TES tank, the similarity transformation and Duhamel's superposition principle are employed. The results indicate that the volume of the TES tank and the type of earth surrounding it are critical factors affecting the system's performance. Among the tested surrounding materials (granite, limestone, and clay earth types), granite exhibits the highest system performance. The results also reveal that the water temperature in the TES tank reaches a maximum of 25.33 °C in July, significantly below the maximum ambient air temperature of 45.67 °C, resulting in a higher COP of 3.42. This performance is achieved with a TES tank volume of 600 m3, a Carnot efficiency of 40%, and using granite as the earth type. Moreover, the system demonstrates periodic operation starting from the 9th year onwards, continuing for 15 years of operation. These improvements lead to significant energy savings and reduced environmental effects.
