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.

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 Versions

GED is available with an interactive user interface in English, German, or French and is accompanied by comprehensive documentation. A free trial version is also available to download and includes an order form for permanent licenses.

The program is offered in two versions:

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€.

The GED PLUS version has the following features:

• The GED PLUS version allows 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 which includes a free test version of the program with unlimited use for 7 days from the first installation. Make sure the user has admin rights for the installation. Run the installer. A shortcut to the GED executable file is created on the desktop.

License order and activation

A short tutorial is provided for the installation of the software, and how to order a license and activate it.

Without additional agreements, a one-time support service is offered to our customers during the installation of the software. For enquiries related to license activation contact us at GE.Dev@afry.com

System requirements Processor:

2.0 GHz RAM: 4 GB Hard Disk: minimal free space of 200 MB Monitor resolution: 1024x768 or higher operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 or later

For further information, we recommend:

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)