This Ph. D. thesis begins with the development of the European
project GeoCool, aimed at the introduction of ground coupled heat pump
systems into the Southern European markets. This project has been the
first that has integrated different fields of engineering involved in the
design and implementation of such systems operating in reversible mode,
being one of the first monitored installations that works in both modes,
heating and cooling.
The main objective of this work is to validate the tools for the
design of ground coupled heat pump systems, whose efficacy depends
not only on the accuracy of their calculations but on the skills of
designers to choose appropriate models and their input parameters.
Hereby GeoCool installation model has been done with the TRNSYS
simulation software and it has been validated experimentally.
The model validation has been performed by comparing the results
of the seasonal performance factor obtained in the simulation with the
calculated from experimental data. The results show that the predictions of the simulation approach rather accurately to the experimental data,
especially if the model incorporates aspects of the actual functioning of
the installation as the use of the heat pump at partial load.