ABSTRACT
The energy slab is a ground-coupled heat exchanger consisting of the horizontal ground heat exchanger (HGHE). The energy slab is installed as one component of the floor slab layers to utilize the underground structure as a hybrid energy structure. In this study, a design method for energy slabs using the artificial neural network (ANN) is proposed. Before establishing the design method, it is necessary to accurately identify system parameters that may affect the thermal performance of energy slabs. Therefore, the effect of system parameters on the thermal performance of energy slabs was investigated by numerical analysis for ideal conditions. Then, a set of databases constructed through the numerical analysis was implemented by the ANN. From this approach, the thermal performance of energy slabs for a typical condition can be quickly predicted without time-consuming numerical simulations.
