Study on the Performance

of a Curved Fresnel Solar

Zhiyong Li Concentrated System With
School of Mechanical Engineering,
Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing 100081, China;
Seasonal Underground Heat
College of Architecture Engineering,
North China University of Technology, Storage for the Greenhouse
Beijing 100144, China

Xinglong Ma
School of Mechanical Engineering,
Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing 100081, China
Yunsheng Zhao
School of Mechanical Engineering,
Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing 100081, China
Hongfei Zheng1
School of Mechanical Engineering,
Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing 100081, China
e-mail: hongfeizh@bit.edu.cn
Application
A solar heating system in greenhouse driven by Fresnel lens concentrator is built in this
study. This system uses a soil thermal storage for greenhouse to supply heat in the
absence of sunlight, ensuring the safety of the growth of crops. The structure and working
principle of the device are introduced in this paper. The underground soil temperature
was tested, compared with the indoor and outdoor temperature. The experimental testing
result is given. A research shows that when the heating pipe buried 1.65 m underground,
the time of heat transfer to the ground is about 5 days. The overall temperature rise of
the soil is about 4  C. In the condition of the coldest weather without additional energy
supplement, the greenhouse’s temperature is guaranteed above 8  C, which can ensure
the minimum temperature requirements of crop growth. According to the structural
parameters of the existing system, the simulation of underground soil heat transfer and
heat storage performance was carried out. Then, the temperature curves of different bur-
ied depths of the tube are given. The soil temperature steady time in different pipe-buried
depths of heat storage temperature is theoretically calculated. It is proved that, to
achieve the seasonal thermal storage in this system, the buried depth of the pipe should
be over 2.5 m. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4040839]

Keywords: curved Fresnel lens solar concentrator, soil heat storage, greenhouse heating,
submerged buried tube

1 Introduction conducted research on thermal performance when north wall of

solar greenhouse is made with hollow brick. This study indicates
Utilizing greenhouse to grow crops is an important mean of
that, when the hollow brick filled with soil, heat capacity of the
providing green vegetables to the market in winter. But in the
wall increases; when the hollow brick filled with pearlite, heat
cold winter, the greenhouse temperature will drop sharply. When
resistant of the wall increases. Berroug et al. [2] theoretically stud-
the temperature drops down to a certain degree, the crops will
ied the impact of (north wall) adding the phase change materials
stop growing and even death. Therefore, finding ways to boost
in north wall to solar greenhouse through establishing quality and
temperature of greenhouse in winter is necessary for crop growth.
energy conservation equations of the greenhouse. Studies show
The cost of traditional methods, like burning coal and electric
that, in Mediterranean climate zone with hot, dry summer, and
heating, is very high. What’s worse, operation of ways mentioned
mild rainy winter, when adding 32.4 kg phase change materials
above is complex. Thus, heat up using solar energy is an ideal
per square meter base area into the north wall, greenhouse temper-
approach.
ature can be raised 6–12  C at night.
Greenhouse heating mainly includes active and passive heating.
Joudi and Ammar [3] proposed the design idea of integration of
Passive heating collects solar radiant heat coming from south and
greenhouse and solar air collector. In his idea, the top of the
stores in north wall made of materials with high heat capacity
greenhouse is substituted by solar air collector, which does not
such as brick, concrete, and phase change materials. When indoor
affect the day lighting of the greenhouse. Experimental research
temperature is lower at night, stored heat will be released to
shows that, when the collector flow rate is 0.012 kg/(s m2), the
increase the indoor temperature. Active way requires the collector
load demand of 84% of the greenhouse can be satisfied, and the
to collect solar heat warming heat media, which is then sent to
greenhouse indoor temperature can stay above 18  C. Attar and
heat dissipation end to heat up indoor. Due to the solar energy is
Farhat [4] used TRNSYS software-analyzed solar heating system in
not continuous, stable energy, usually heat storage device is
theory. Studies have shown that in Tunisia, North Africa, the cost
needed in the active heating mode. In the passive heating way,
of an area of 1000 m2 of solar greenhouse can be reduced by
north wall is often used as heat storage. By adding high-
51.8% in the software simulation results. Lu et al. [5] put forward
performance heat-storing materials or modifying, heat storage
the calculation model of solar heat storage system, which can be
capacity of the north wall can be improved. Wang et al. [1]
used in optimization design of greenhouse heating system. Mas-
sana et al. [6] studied the phase change storage plant root zone
1
Corresponding author. heating system of greenhouse. Studies have shown that the best
Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of ASME for publication in the phase change temperature of phase change materials is 15  C. The
JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY ENGINEERING: INCLUDING WIND ENERGY AND BUILDING
ENERGY CONSERVATION. Manuscript received November 23, 2017; final manuscript running time of traditional heating system is reduced because of
received June 27, 2018; published online August 20, 2018. Assoc. Editor: Ming Qu. usage of phase change materials. Xu et al. [7] studied the

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 application of solar heating system with seasonal storage in green-
house, which is proved to have better performance than heat
pump system. In the absence of auxiliary heat source, the solar
heating system with seasonal storage can make indoor tempera-
ture higher than outdoor temperature at least 13  C. Ozturk [8]
experimentally studied the solar seasonal heating system using
paraffin wax as the storage medium. The system energy efficiency
can reach 40.4%. Bouadila et al. [9] experimentally studied the
heating system combining solar air collector system and phase
change heat storage. The system can make temperature of solar
greenhouse orientated in east–west direction higher than conven-
tional greenhouse temperature 5  C. Thirty one percentage of the
greenhouse heat demand can be satisfied. Benli and Durmus [10]
studied solar air collector combined with phase change heat stor-
age system using calcium chloride hexahydrate as phase change
materials. Research shows that the system can meet the 18–23%
demand of the greenhouse thermal energy. And this system can
make solar greenhouse temperature higher than the outside air
temperature at least 7  C at night.
In this study of application of solar energy heating of green-
house, most of them are short cycle heat storage. Despite low
investment of short cycle heat storage, there are often more than a
week of continuous cloudy days in winter, which will make the
solar system not able to work. And the solar assurance rate of
short cycle heat storage is lower than the solar assurance rate of
long period. Studies show that the solar assurance rate of seasonal
solar heat storage system can reach 50–70%. However, the solar
assurance rate of short cycle of solar heat storage system can only
achieve 10–20% [11]. Therefore, the seasonal heat storage system
has greater potential to reduce the consumption of fossil energy.
Nowadays, seasonal energy storage researches mainly focus on
solar district heating system and solar heating system of green-
house [12,13]. The current ways of thermal storage in solar heat-
ing system mostly use water tank, because water has the
characteristics of high specific heat, easy to obtain, and low cost.
But for large heat storage systems, the use of water leads to over-
large tank volume and high cost. What’s worse, the use of water
tank needs to occupy a certain area. In summer, greenhouse only
needs cooling by ventilation without the demand of heat. Thus, it
causes idle of summer solar equipment, and solar radiation in
summer is more than in winter. Thus, it results in enormous waste
of solar thermal energy.
Based on the above studies, the most appropriate solar energy
utilization for greenhouse is seasonal heat storage technology. It
collects and stores heat in summer for use in the cold weather.
This effectively improves the solar collector efficiency and system
reliability. In greenhouse, in order to increase the planting area as
much as possible to improve the economic benefit, it is unlikely to
leave a large number of open spaces for water tank. Therefore, in
the seasonal heat storage system, the more suitable heat storage
medium is the soil. And for the same volume of soil and water,
thermal storage capacities are similar. The advantages of soil are
that it does not occupy usable area, and its surface can be used as
a radiating surface, reducing the operation cost of the system to a
certain extent. The biggest problem of soil heat storage system is
that the heat transfer capability is weak. In order to strengthen the
heat transfer between the buried pipe and soil, materials with high
thermal conductivity are usually filled between the buried pipe
and soil. In some practical projects, bentonite or some mixed
materials are used as the filler. Gustafsson et al. [14] studied the
performance of using water as filler material. Delaleux et al. [15]
added the high-thermal conductivity graphite to the filler to reduce
the thermal resistance of thermal conductivity. Reuss et al. [16]
studied the soil seasonal heat storage system. In the system, 140
holes with 30 m depth were drilled. And soil heat storage volume
is 15,000 m3. Heat storage of the soil can meet the demand of
170 kWh. The economic analysis shows that this system when
compared with the traditional system can save 266 MWh energy
every year. Lundh and Dalenb€ack [17] studied the seasonal heat
storage system drilling in the crystalline rock. The system solar
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collector area is 2400 m2 and has a total of 100–65 m deep holes
drilled. The system can satisfy the heating requirements of 50
families. And the average solar assurance rate can reach 70%. Soil
coefficient of thermal conductivity, specific heat, and diffusion
rate has a great influence on the efficiency of system. Cullin, J. R.
et al. are built soil heat transfer model to analyze [18–20]. Diao
et al. [21] analyzed the impact of groundwater flow on the heat
transfer performance of ground heat exchanger.
In order to maximize the utilization of solar energy and reduce
the effective space occupied by heat storage devices, a Fresnel
line concentrator heat storage system for soil heat storage is pro-
posed. The system uses a Fresnel collector developed by its own
research group. This collector has the advantages of small size,
light weight, low production cost, and strives to solve the problem
of energy supply in greenhouse by the system.
2 System Description and Working Process
The system (Fig. 1) consists of five parts: transmission Fresnel
line concentrator solar high temperature heat collection system,
heat exchanger, heat storage water tank, pipe radiator, and green-
house users. The basic working process of the system is: transmis-
sion line Fresnel concentrating solar collector follows the sun
during the day and collects solar energy to heat up conducting oil
in condenser focal line position inside the vacuum tube. The oil is
sent to the heat exchanger under the action of the pump. In the
plate heat exchanger, the high temperature conduction oil is
heated with the heat medium water on the other side of the plate,
so that the heat medium water is heated up and its temperature
increases. Heat medium water is heated up and is driven into a
heat storage water tank under the drive of a water pump. The hot
water in the heat storage water tank is driven into the underground
pipe by another pump. The pipe radiator heats the soil and heats
up the soil to store heat. The whole system has been working
before winter, and heat collected by solar high temperature heat
collection system will get through the oil circulation, ground side
circulation, underground water side circulation, and transferred to
the deep soil; in winter, the heat stored in soil is transferred to the
ground and release the heated air in the greenhouse .
In this system, the soil acts as both the heat storage device and
the exothermic end. Because the heat conducted to the ground is
related to underground pipe buried depth, soil physical factors,
and load and is also related to heating temperature and heating
load of the solar heating system terminal. So in order to find out
the operating rules and economic of the system and realize the
underground soil seasonal storage purposes, the experimental
study is carried out based on a set of practical system on the out-
skirts of Beijing. The operation results of the system are pre-
sented. Figure 1 shows the basic composition and operating
principle of the system, and Fig. 2 is the appearance of the system
photos. The structural parameters of the system are described
below.
2.1 Transmission Fresnel Line Concentrator Solar High
Temperature Heat Collection System. The structure and the
focusing principle of the transmission type Fresnel line concen-
trator are shown in Fig. 3. In this experiment, the Fresnel con-
centrator is made of PC material by injection molding. The
average thickness is 5 mm, the maximum is 7 mm, the minimum
thickness is 2.2 mm, and the actual concentration width is 0.65
m. The average transmissivity of Fresnel concentrator is about
87%, and the facula width of normal solar incident is about
35 mm. The concentrator is made of reflective aluminum plate,
and the light collection range is 150 mm. The system takes about
8 min to track the sun once. The total solar concentrator area of
the system is 41.6 m2. The diameter of the glass tube of the solar
vacuum tube receiver is 102 mm. The diameter of the channel is
12 mm, and the fins coated with copper are added to increase the
receiving area of the solar light. The working fluid is heat con-
ducting oil.
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 1 System schematic diagram
2.2 Structural Parameters of Other Parts of the System.
The heat exchanger used in the system is an ordinary plate heat
exchanger with a heat exchange area of 0.12 m2. The heat storage
water tank is 500 L, and the outer side is insulated with 50 mm
thick polyurethane foam. The pipe radiator of the underground
soil is heat resistant aluminum pipe with 26 mm diameter, divided
into four rows horizontally arranged under 1.65 m soil depth. Seg-
ment length of the pipeline design is 20 m. The distance between
the two tubes edge is 0.5 m. The distance between tubes is about
17 cm. The total heat transfer area is about 6.5 m2. The working
substance that inputs heat into the soil is water.
Fresnel line concentrator heat collection system is the heat
source of the whole system. Fresnel concentrator reflects sunlight
to the vacuum tube receiver. By the excitement of solar radiation,
temperature of heat conducting oil in vacuum tube is raised.
When the oil temperature reaches the set value, pumps 1 and 2
start. Then, the high temperature heat conducting oil is sent to a
heat exchanger side, and the water in water tank is transported to
other side of the heat exchanger, achieving heat transfer between
water and oil; when the solar radiation is weak, oil temperature
decreases, when the oil temperature is lower than the set value,
the pumps 1 and 2 stop working at the same time. Soil heat stor-
age system, as the heat storage unit of solar collecting system and
the heating end of greenhouse, is mainly composed of water circu-
lation pipeline, water pump 3, water tank, and valve 2. When the
temperature of the water in the water tank reaches the setting
Fig. 2 Photo of the system
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temperature, the water pump 3 is started, and the high temperature
water in the water tank is sent into the underground pipe buried in
the soil. In the underground pipe, high temperature water heats the
surrounding soil at low temperature and stores heat in the soil.
The soil surrounding the earth’s pipe will heat up the surrounding
soil and, over time, heat will flow to the ground. The warming up
of the ground convects with the air in the greenhouse, thereby
realizing the heating for the greenhouse.
2.3 Structure Parameters of Greenhouse. The experimental
greenhouse is built in Beijing, China, and its basic structure is
shown in Fig. 1.
The span length of the greenhouse is L1 ¼ 8 m, the height of
the north wall is H1 ¼ 2.8 m, and the ridge height is H2 ¼ 3.8 m.
The greenhouse length is 30 m. The shape of the east and west
wall is the same as that of the top film, so it can be considered as
the 1/4 ellipse (long radius 8 m and short radius 3.8 m). After cal-
culation, the heat transfer area is as follows: the north wall area is
84 m2, the back slope area is 48 m2, the former slope coverage
area is 240 m2, and the east and west wall area are 24 m2. Polysty-
rene walls are used in the East and west walls, the north wall, and
the back slope. The thermal conductivity of polystyrene board is
0.047 W/(m C), and the thickness is 0.15 m. After calculation,
Fig. 3 Structure of the transmission type Fresnel line
concentrator
FEBRUARY 2019, Vol. 141 / 011004-3
 Fig. 4 Layout of measuring points

the heat transfer coefficient is 0.299 W/(m C). The ground heat 3.1 Experimental Data Acquisition. In order to analyze the
transfer coefficient is 0.24 W/(m C). According to the tightness heat storage and heat transfer characteristics of the soil, the tem-
of greenhouse, the ventilation rate was determined to be 0.2 perature of each measuring point has been recorded for a long
times/h and the volume of greenhouse were calculated as 716 m3. time. The test period is from January 2016 to February 2016, and
The heat load of solar greenhouse was calculated to be about the data acquisition interval is 4 min. By comparing the tempera-
16 kW. ture of the same depth, different positions and different depths of
In order to monitor the change of soil temperature, 36 tempera- the same vertical, the characteristics of heat transfer and surface
ture measuring points are arranged at different positions in the soil heat dissipation in the soil are obtained.
inside the greenhouse. And the measuring points are arranged as
shown in Fig. 4. Nine columns are arranged along the depth direc-
tion of the measuring point. The distance between the columns is 3.2 Experimental Results and Analysis
1 m in the X direction, and the distance between the columns in
the Y direction is 5 m. In each column, the distance between the 3.2.1 Comprehensive Results and Analysis. The experiment
four measuring points along the depth is 0.4 m. The A, B, and C system was completed in January 2016, but it did not have good
column survey points are located along the depth direction from sunlight until January 19, that is to say, the experiment system
the ground 0.4 m (measuring points A4, B4, C4), 0.8 m (meas- began to heat underground soil from January 19. Figure 5 shows
uring points A3, B3, C3), 1.2 m (measuring points A2, B2, C2),
and 1.6 m (measuring points A1, B1, C1). D, E, F, G, H, I col-
umns along the depth direction are, respectively, arranged beneath
the ground 0.1 m (D4, E4, F4, G4, H4, I4), 0.4 m (D3, E3, F3, G3,
H3, I3), 0.8 m (D2, E2, F2, G2, H2, I2), and 1.2 m (D1, E1, F1,
G4, H1, I1).
The temperature was measured using platinum RTDs with a
resistance of 100X at 0  C (degree of error is 0.1  C). The platinum
resistance of measuring soil temperature is buried directly in the
soil. A platinum resistor measuring the temperature inside and out-
side the greenhouse is placed in a place where the sun does not
shine. The solar radiation sensor is set on the collector. When the
solar radiation intensity reaches the set value, pump 1 starts. The
thermocouple is set on the second side of the heat exchanger, and
when the thermocouple reaches the set temperature, pumps 2 and 3
start.

3 Experimental Test and Result Analysis

Based on a set of Fresnel line concentrator heat collection
underground soil heat storage system in Beijing Shunyi District,
China, it is studied solar energy storage in soil, and the soil tem-
perature change of the distance of buried pipe in different posi-
tion, calculating the energy efficiency of the system indirectly.
The conclusion of the study can provide the reference for the Fig. 5 Temperature curves at different depths of indoor and
design of similar systems. outdoor air and soil

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 the experimental results from January 8 to February 26. The tem-
perature of below ground surface 0.4 m, outside temperature,
indoor air temperature, and temperature of underground 1.6 m
(temperature of soil close to the heating tube) are given. In the
experiment, the greenhouse only maintains the indoor temperature
through the soil heat dissipation, without applying other auxiliary
heat sources. As can be seen from the diagram, the indoor temper-
ature of greenhouse is basically synchronized with outdoor tem-
perature fluctuation, which proves that outdoor temperature is the
main factor affecting indoor temperature of greenhouse. The sur-
face temperature of soil is most closely related to the indoor air
temperature. As can be seen from the diagram, after the solar heat
storage system works (after February 1), the surface average tem-
perature of soil has increased significantly, and has increased by
nearly 4  C. The temperature of blow ground surface 0.4 m
reflected impact of solar heating system on soil temperature.
When solar system does not work (before February 1), the temper-
ature of beneath ground surface 0.4 m is 15  C. And after a cold
period, it drops to 12.9  C. When solar system works, the tempera-
ture rises steadily to 19.3  C. The overall temperature increases
4  C. The result also shows that the soil temperature around the
buried pipe with daily heating also fluctuates with the heating
every day, at approximately 0.125  C. The base temperature is ris-
ing gradually from the original 15  C up to 20  C.
It is worth noting that the experimental heating time is short.
From January 12 to January 18, the sun is not good; system did
not supply much heat to the soil. In other words, the system did
not officially start heating until January 18.The system heating
start time was late, because there was not much sunny day left,
Fig. 6 Temperature changes in the horizontal direction on the X–Z plane of the B line
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and it was close to the season with demand on heating. If the sys-
tem could be work at the beginning of November, the system per-
formance would be better.
3.2.2 Temperature Changes in the Horizontal Direction on
the X–Z Plane of the B Line. The temperature of the 12 points on
the X–Z plane of the B line is chosen to compare and analyze, in
order to obtain the change law of soil internal temperature, and
provide reference for practical application of the system.
Figure 6 shows the temperature changes in the horizontal direc-
tion on the X–Z plane of the B line. B2 is located at 0.4 m above
the heating tube, E1 and H1 are at the same height as B2, and the
distance from B2 is 1 m and 2 m, respectively. As can be seen
from the diagram, the temperature changes of the three points are
not very obvious. The temperature of B2, E1 began to rise in Janu-
ary 26, while the temperature of H1 remained unchanged. The
reason is from January 10 to 25, Beijing is cloudy, and the solar
radiation is not strong, resulting that the system is not running in
most of the time. So no significant change of the temperature at
measuring point B2, E1, and H1 were observed. From January 26
to February 10, Beijing is sunny, which keeps the system running.
The temperature of B2 and E1 began to rise, and the increasing
value is about 1  C. But the temperature of measuring point H1
remained unchanged, and maintained at 16  C. The main reason is
the measuring point H1 is far from heating tube (about 2 m). It is
proved that in the heating period of 10 days or so, the heat can be
transferred to about 0.4 min vertical, about 1 min horizontal direc-
tion, but it does not affect the place in the position of 2 m in hori-
zontal direction. The measuring points B3, E2, and H2 begin to
FEBRUARY 2019, Vol. 141 / 011004-5
 have obvious temperature rise in January 28.The temperature rise
relative to B2, E1, and H1 lags about 2 days. The reason is that
the three measuring points are farther from the heating tube than
B2, E1, and H1. B3 is about 0.8 m from the heating tube. E2 is
about 1.3 m from the heating tube. H2 is about 2.2 m from the
heating tube. The temperature rise of H2 is higher than that of H1,
mainly due to the influence of surface temperature on H2. It is
proved that the radius of heat transfer can reach about 1 m in the
heating period of 12 days or so. The measuring points B4, E3, and
H3 begin to have obvious temperature rise in February 2. The
temperature rose relative to E1, H1, and B2 delay for 7 days. The
reason is that the three measuring points are farther from the heat-
ing tube, about 1.2–2.3 m. After judging from the temperature
fluctuation range of the three measuring points, it is proved that
the surface temperature has a great influence on the depth of
0.4 m.

Fig. 7 Temperature in the vertical direction of the X–Z plane of the B line

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 Fig. 8 Heat transfer model of pipe heating to soil

3.2.3 Temperature Changes in the Vertical Direction on the A3, B3, and C3 are the monitoring points at the ground surface.
X–Z Plane of the B Line. In Fig. 7, temperature is in the vertical The computational equations and boundary conditions are as
direction of the X–Z plane of the B line. B1, B2, B3, and B4 are follows.
the soil temperature points at different depths on the same vertical
line. As can be seen from the diagram, the temperature of the four 4.2 Governing Equations. In order to simplify the analysis,
measuring points is closer to the heating tube and the higher the the following assumptions are made in numerical simulations:
temperature is. B1 shows obvious cyclical fluctuations. B2 and B3
fluctuate little, and B4 fluctuates more. The main reason is that B4 (1) It is considered that the heat transfer between ground sur-
is greatly affected by the ground temperature. During the heating face and air in greenhouse are natural convection heat
period from January 26 to February 10, the temperature rose of transfer.
the place apart from the buried pipe 0.4 m in vertical direction is (2) The initial soil temperature is 15  C.
about 3  C, and the temperature rise of the place apart from the (3) The surface temperature of the heating tube is the first kind
buried pipe 0.8 m in vertical direction is about 2.5  C. For meas- of boundary condition and varies according to the sine.
uring points E1, E2, E3, and E4, the temperature fluctuations of (4) In the calculation process, the soil physical property param-
E4 are great, and the temperature fluctuation of other three points eters do not change.
is smaller. The reason is that the distances of E1, E2, and E3, The heat transfer equation of soil body is
respectively, apart from buried pipe are 0.4 m, 0.8 m, and 1.2 m;  
 
the influence from the buried pipe and the ambient temperature @t @ @t @ @t
are weak, resulting in flat temperature curve. While for the meas- qcp ¼ k þ k (1)
@s @y @y @z @z
uring points E4, though far from the buried pipe but close to the
soil surface, is influenced by environmental temperature, so the where, q is soil density (kg/m3); cp is the soil specific heat
temperature curve varies with the ambient temperature, represent- (J/(kg C)); t is the soil temperature ( C); k is the soil thermal con-
ing a trend that temperature is high at day, low at night. From ductivity (W/(m C)); s is the time, s.
February 2 to 10, due to the abundant sunshine, the peak of E4
temperature curve can reach 25  C. While in cloudy day from Jan-
uary 20 to 22, the highest temperature of E4 is only 14  C, and the 4.3 Initial Conditions and Boundary Conditions. Boundary
lowest temperature of E4 is blow 10  C. It is proved that the envi- conditions are: The temperature gradient at the lower surface
ronmental temperature has great influence on the soil temperature (K–K surface) of the soil body is 0
at the ground surface, but the temperature of the heating tube has 
little influence on the soil temperature. The temperature histories @t 
¼0 (2)
of four measuring points of H1, H2, H3, and H4 are similar to that @z z¼1
of E1, E2, E3, and E4. The difference is that the diurnal tempera-
ture difference of E1 is larger than that of H1. The symmetric surface of the soil regenerator (S–S surface)’s tem-
perature gradient is 0
4 Simulation Analysis and Comparison With 
@t 
Experiment ¼0 (3)
Through numerical simulation, the influence of different depth
buried pipe on soil temperature is analyzed, and then, the optimal
buried depth in seasonal energy storage is obtained.
@y y¼0
Convection heat transfer happens between the upper surface
(W–W surface) of the soil body and the air. And it belongs to the
third boundary condition
4.1 Physical Model. The heating pipes are buried into the 
soil to heat in this system. Except the upper surface of the soil @t 
heat storage body, which directly contacts air in greenhouse, the
left and right side surface, the underside surface can be extended
indefinitely. So the soil heat storage body heat transfer problem
belongs to an infinite body heat transfer problem. The physical
model is shown in Fig. 8.
In Fig. 8, the upper surface W–W of the soil body contacts with
the air. The left surface F–F, the right surface E–E, and the lower
surface K–K of the soil body are an adiabatic surface. S–S is the
symmetric surface. A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, and C3 are
selected calculation monitoring points. The distance (Lb) between
A and C is 10 m. After calculation, the temperature of the corre-
k  ¼ hðtf  tw Þ (4)
@z w
That is to say, the air temperature tf on the surface of soil is
assumed to be sinusoidal, the wave amplitude is 7  C, the average
value is 19  C, the minimum value is 12  C, and the maximum
value is 26  C, the expression is as follows: tf ¼ 7sin
(2  3.14  t/3600/24) þ 19. The heat transfer coefficient h of nat-
ural convection of soil and air is 5 W/(m2 C).
The temperature gradient at the right end surface of the soil
body is 0
sponding points is output. A1, B1, and C1 are the monitoring 
@t 
points far from the buried pipe 0.1 m; A2, B2, and C2 are the cen- ¼0 (5)
@y y¼1
ter monitoring points between buried pipe and the ground surface;

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 Fig. 9 Temperature of different points varies with the depth is 1.5 m
The hot water temperature in the heating tube varies with the
irradiance of the sun, so it is assumed that the temperature at the
surface of the heating tube is the first kind of boundary condition
tjX ¼ 10  sinð2  3:14  t=3600=24Þ þ 30
That is to say, the surface temperature change of the heating tube
is sinusoidal. The amplitude is 10  C, the average value is 30  C,
the minimum value is 20  C, and the maximum value is 40  C. X
represents the heating surface of the tube.
Initial condition: the initial temperature of soil heat storage
body is t0
tjs¼0 ¼ t0 (6)
Equations (1)–(6) are solved by the finite element method.
The calculation area of soil heat storage body is 15 m (x
direction)  6.6 m (Y direction). According to the test results, the
initial soil temperature t0 is set to 15  C. The surface air tempera-
ture is set at an average temperature of 16  C during the
test period, and the convective heat transfer coefficient is set at
5 W/(m2 C). The soil density was 1850 (kg/m3), and the specific
heat of soil was 1840 (J/(kg C)), and the thermal conductivity of
soil was 1.41 (W/(m C)).
4.4 Simulation Results and Analysis of Soil Temperature
Field. According to different buried pipe depth (0.5–3 m), the
variation of soil temperature distribution with time was analyzed.
According to the soil monitoring points A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3,
C1, C2, and C3, the influence of the buried depth of the buried
pipe on the thermal storage performance was obtained. Figure 9
shows temperature changes of points A, B, and C when the buried
pipe depth is 1.5 m.
Seen from Fig. 9, in the calculation conditions, the most repre-
sentative measuring points is A. In the first 25 days, the tempera-
ture of A1 rose fast, and basically reached the steady temperature
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only in 15 days, because it is closest to the buried pipe and
affected by pipe heating periodically. So the volatility of A1 every
day is large, and it eventually stabilized at about 28  C. The tem-
perature rising trend of A2 is similar to that of A1, but the temper-
ature rising height is relatively low, reaching only about 25  C.
Because the A2 is far away from the soil surface and heating
pipes, the daily variation of temperature is relatively stable. The
time of A3 reached the steady temperature is the slowest. It
reached a steady temperature about 25 days. At the same time,
because A3 is on the surface of the soil, it is greatly affected by
the temperature of the air inside the greenhouse, so its temperature
fluctuates greatly every day. The temperature of monitoring points
B2 and B3 rose rapidly, reached a steady temperature about 20
days. The temperature of B1 is the highest, and the fluctuation is
larger; the temperature of B3 is the lowest, the fluctuation is great;
the temperature of B2 is between B1 and B3, and the fluctuation
is smaller. The main reason is B1 is affected by buried pipe; B3 is
affected by the ground surface. The temperature of C2 and C3 get
stable about 24 days. The temperature of C1 is the highest, and
the fluctuation is minimum; the temperature of C3 is lowest, fluc-
tuation is great; the temperature of C2 is between C1 and C3. The
main reason is C1 is affected by buried pipe; C3 is affected by
ground surface.
As shown in Table 1, as the depth of the buried pipe increases,
the time heat transferred from buried pipe to the soil surface will
gradually increase, and the time required to achieve a stable tem-
perature distribution increases much faster than the depth. There-
fore, in order to realize the long-term heat storage of soil and
make timely use of greenhouse, the depth of buried pipe must be
Table 1 The time when the soil reaches a steady temperature
Depth (m) 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time (day) 7 9 25 60 75 100
The soil surface stabilizes 22 21 21 20 20 20
temperature ( C)
Transactions of the ASME
 reasonably chosen, and the soil heat dissipation time can be con-
trolled according to the buried pipe depth in practical engineering.
The calculation shows that when the buried pipe depth is 3 m, the
heat transfer reached a stable time is about 100 days, and solar
energy can be stored more than a season. It is worth pointing out
that in the above simulation calculation, the contact thermal resist-
ance between pipe and soil is not considered, and the calculation
depth may be biased. Overall, because solar energy is free energy,
in order to get more heat storage, and to achieve soil heat storage
over the quarter, we can consider starting storing heat from June;
and setting depth of buried pipe at about 3 m.
5 Conclusions
Through the experimental test and simulation analysis of a solar
greenhouse system driven by condensing the surface Fresnel lens,
the results are as follows:
(1) In the absence of other heat source conditions, system can
guarantee the lowest indoor temperature not lower than
8  C using 41.6 m2 surface Fresnel lens light and heat col-
lecting system for 240 m2 (interior volume 716 m3)
greenhouse.
(2) When the heating pipes buried underground 1.65 m, heat
transferred to the ground time is approximately 5 days, and
takes about 25 days to achieve stable heat transfer.
(3) Under the experimental conditions, the overall warming up
of the soil is about 4  C.
(4) In order to achieve seasonal heat storage, the buried pipe
depth should be more than 2.5 m; at this time, the system
achieves a stable heat transfer, which takes about 75 days.
When the depth is 3 m, soil takes 100 days to reach the
steady heat transfer (takes 100 days), that can achieve sea-
sonal heat storage.
Funding Data
 The National Key Technology R&D Program in 12th Five-
Year (Grant No. 2013AA102407-2).
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