AFRY Groundwater Energy Designer

AFRY Groundwater Energy Designer (GED) is a simple to use tool with various applications for the thermal utilization of groundwater for heating and/or cooling of buildings.

GED may be used in a preliminary planning phase to study the hydraulic and thermal processes in the aquifer induced by the extraction and re-injection of groundwater, and to optimize the design.

How it works

GED enables users to do the following tasks:

• Determine the necessary flow rates for a desired heating or cooling output.
• Specify the characteristics of the wells to meet the necessary flow rates (demand) with the given geologic and hydraulic conditions on site.
• Simulate the flow and heat transport in the aquifer based on a set of lumped parameters and the local hydraulic flow field.
• Visualize the effects of the utilization for user-defined locations, flow rates, and extraction and reinjection scenarios.

To minimize undesirable thermal effects on the groundwater at the site, GED allows you to interactively test various configurations by changing the number and location of wells.

GED is available with an interactive user interface in English, German, or French and is accompanied by comprehensive documentation.

GED Versions

The program is offered in the Basic version and the PLUS version.

Basic version

The BASIC version includes the functionalities required for the early project phases of small installations. This version considers only a single input value of heat energy demand corresponding to the average annual demand. Energy demand and temperature difference between pump and injection boreholes are used to determine the mean annual pumping flow rate in (liters/min).

The basic computer-specific license costs 600€.

PLUS version

The PLUS version has the following features:

• The capability to consider in the calculation more than 1 energy demand inputs. For example, every month of the year can be set to a specific energy demand and therefore specific pumping flow rate. The following plot is an example of monthly energy demand for space heating and warm water which can be used an input:

• Simulation of hydraulic dispersion: Hydrodynamic dispersion for heat transport is implemented only in the PLUS version. The basic version does not account for it (Dispersion = aquifer dispersivity * calculated water flow velocity).
• Model mesh customization: the model extent is discretized into elements with the smallest element edge length at the well vicinity and increasing logarithmically towards the model edge. In the PLUS version, the user can customize the mesh refinement.
• Convergence criteria for the numerical solver of groundwater flow. Fixed values on basic version, customizable by user in PLUS version.
• Convergence criteria for the numerical solver of heat transport. Fixed values on basic version, customizable by user in PLUS version.

The GED PLUS computer-specific license costs 1300€.

Program installation

Download the software executable installer. Ensure the user has Windows administrator rights for the installation. Run the installer. A shortcut to the GED executable file is created on the desktop.

A short tutorial is provided for

• the installation of the software.
• how to order a demo license.
• how to order a commercial license.
• license activation process.

License order

To order a license, please follow the following steps:

• Access the license order form in GED.
• Fill out the license order form and send it by email to ge.dev@afry.com. We will reply with a license file and installation instructions.

Demo license

Identify the computerID in the license order form and send it by email to to ge.dev@afry.com indicating the date of start of the DEMO period. We will reply with a license file valid for 14 days.

Software documentation

J. Poppei and R. Schwarz, "A simple tool for designing and assessing thermal groundwater utilization", Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, (2011)