Investigating the Effectiveness of Energy Tunnels in Cooling Underground Substations

Abstract

Energy geo-structures have received rapid attention as part of the pursuit for renewable energy since they can exchange heat between the ground and under- or above-ground spaces, in addition to their primary structural functions. However, their efficiency in cooling-dominated conditions has not been adequately studied. This paper tackles a key challenge regarding transport tunnels: sustainable cooling of underground substations by introducing a cooling system that integrates heat exchangers into tunnel lining. This system takes advantage of the tunnel air and the ground potential as sustainable heat sinks to which the heat from the substations is rejected and evaluates the efficiency of the ..