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• Seepage can promote the temperature field around GHEs to reach the steady faster. • Seepage effects on temperature field around GHEs increases with seepage velocity. • Seepage will reduce the accumulation of heat around the heat exchangers. • Ground stratification effects on temperature field around GHEs depends on the thermal property of adjacent stratum. Heat transfer between the ground heat exchanger and surrounding stratum under the action of groundwater seepage is a potential problem in karst areas, few systematic studies on it have been carried out yet. A model test apparatus was built to experimentally investigate the effects of karst groundwater seepage and ground stratification on the heat transfer characteristics of ground heat exchangers. The heat and seepage transfer coupling model for ground heat exchangers was established, and verified with the measured data from the model test. Base on the model, the influence of seepage velocity and direction on the heat transfer of ground heat exchangers was analyzed and discussed. Test results show that the seepage can promote the temperature field around the heat exchanger to reach the steady state faster, and the influence of seepage on the soil temperature field around the heat exchanger increases with increasing the seepage velocity. The seepage will carry the heat released by the heat exchanger from the upstream side to the downstream, which effectively reduce the accumulation of heat around the heat exchanger. Soil boundary exists the sudden change of temperature when there are great differences in thermal properties between adjacent soil layers, which can be attributed to the influence of ground stratification. The numerical model proposed in this study can well predict the distribution of soil temperature field around heat exchangers in the model test. Simulation results show that the temperature of soil around the heat exchanger will change along the seepage direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New 2-D heat transfer model for coaxial BHE was built to estimate layered λ s. • Novel estimation of layered λ s was presented by using DTRT data and GA. • Effect of layer conditions on estimation was almost eliminated by the method. • 2 h DTRT data was efficient to estimate the layered λ s by the method. Estimation of ground thermal conductivity plays an important role in design of borehole heat exchanger (BHE) for ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems, and the ground is usually heterogeneous with layered thermal properties. Therefore, this study presented a novel estimation method for layered ground thermal conductivity by using distributed thermal response test (DTRT) and genetic algorithm. Firstly, a comprehensive new 2-D heat transfer model for coaxial BHE was built to simulate borehole fluid temperature profiles, it revealed that the distribution of ground thermal conductivity showed a significant influence on outlet temperature and temperature profiles. Then, based on the built model, the vertical distribution of ground thermal conductivity was estimated through DTRT data by using the genetic algorithm. It was found that the DTRT data at 2 h was effective to estimate the layered ground thermal conductivity by using the new 2-D heat transfer model. Furthermore, the estimated distribution of ground thermal conductivity was almost independent of numbers or thickness of sub-layer, and the largest difference in distributions of ground thermal conductivity among different layer thickness was less than 0.3 W/(m·K). Also, the estimation convergence showed independence with layer thickness, converged results could be obtained after 10 iterations for different layer conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]