Ground Temperature Profiles in Los Humeros, Puebla, México for Ground Source Heat Pumps Applications

Abstract

The knowledge of the temperature distribution and the thermal behavior of the ground is important for many projects, for example, to design thermal energy storage systems, to calculate heat losses in buildings, for analysis of biodegradation processes of organic substance, and the design of heat exchangers for Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), among others. This paper presents the shallow ground temperatures profile measurements in Los Humeros, Puebla, México for GSHP applications. For this purpose, a borehole was drilled, and thermocouples were installed to a depth of up to seven meters. The ground temperatures were measured during the period between September 2016 and February 2018. The monitoring and temperature logging was carried out using a CR800 Campbell Scientific datalogger, configured with sampling times at thirty-seconds intervals, and data storage at 15 min intervals. The measured ground temperatures were at 22 °C at a depth of 0.1 m and increased from there onwards until they reached almost 52 °C at 7 m depth. The mean annual ambient air temperature is 12.5 °C. Shallow ground temperatures are predominantly influenced by the ambient air temperature and the marked temperature increase is due to the closeness of the experimental borehole to a geological fault.