Coupled seepage and heat transfer intake model

In the beach well intake system, heat is transferred from soil to fluid when seawater is filtered through the aquifer, providing higher temperature source water to the seawater source heat pump (SWHP) system in winter. A 3-D coupled seepage and heat transfer model for studying beach well intake system is established by adopting the computer code FLUENT. Numerical results of this model are compared with the experimental results under the same conditions. Based on the experiment-verified coupled model, numerical simulation of the supply water temperature is studied over a heating season. Results show that the minimum temperature of supply water is 275.2 K when this intake system continuously provides seawater with flow rate of 35 m3/h to SWHP. Results also indicate that the supply water temperature is higher than seawater, and that the minimum temperature of supply water lags behind seawater, ensuring effective and reliable operation of SWHP.