1. Introduction
Data-driven modeling and learning have become increasingly important in science and engineering. Along with it, the need for reliable measurements with well-characterized uncertainties has grown. The field of geothermal energy is no exception. On the contrary, underground inaccessibility and relatively scarce data make accurate measurements particularly vital to perform correct inference on existing or future systems.
For Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems in particular, knowledge of the underground temperature field is valuable to understand the underlying heat transfer mechanisms in the ground. In turn, this combined knowledge can be used to improve the performance of the system in several ways, such as enhancing current performance, updating predictions about future operating conditions and providing more information about underground thermo-hydraulic conditions.
One way to obtain information about the underground temperature field is to use Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) inside boreholes. DTS enables temperature measurement with some spatial resolution along the sensor itself, a fiber optic cable, rather than in a specific location. Furthermore, these measurements can be performed quasi-simultaneously over the length of the fiber [
1,
2]. Selker et al. [
3] discuss pros and cons of several DTS techniques: fiber Bragg grating, Brillouin and Raman scattering. Most short-distance sensing (<15 km) is based on Raman Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) [
1].
Raman DTS systems have been used in various fields, including monitoring power transmission lines [
4], fire detection and safety [
5,
6], volcanology [
7], oil well monitoring [
8], inferring paleoclimate [
9,
10,
11], leakage detection in dams and dikes [
12], hydrogeology [
13,
14], atmospheric science and extraterrestrial geophysics [
15].
In shallow boreholes the Raman DTS technique – simply referred to as DTS below – has been used for about three decades with first applications in hydrogeology [
2,
16,
17]. In the reviewed literature, application of the DTS technique to GSHP research first appears in the context of Distributed Thermal Response Testing (DTRT) [
18,
19,
20,
21]. DTRTs based on DTS is still a current topic of research and even seems to have regained interest in recent years [
22,
23,
24,
25,
26,
27,
28].
Besides their application to DTRTs, fiber optic cables have also been used to monitor operation of Borehole and Aquifer Thermal Energy Storages (BTES and ATES) [
29,
30,
31,
32,
33]. Additionally, DTS data have indirectly been capitalized on to create thermal conductivity maps [
34] or to measure the undisturbed temperature profile and evaluate its effect on design procedures [
19,
35,
36,
37].
In-situ DTS measurements is coupled to different challenges, three of which are presented hereafter. The first one, calibration, is described by Selker et al. [
3]: "
an important aspect to keep in mind is that this is a technology that provides temperature data with minimal setup or interpretation required. It is necessary to calibrate the instrument to the cable by attaching the fiber-optic cable to the instrument with the cable in an environment of well-known temperature”. When performing temperature measurements with a DTS device, in-situ calibration is indeed a requirement [
1,
38,
39,
40,
41]. While commercial DTS units typically have an in-built calibration procedure, it may not be precise and accurate enough for hydrogeological applications [
39,
40,
42].
Hausner et al. [
39] discuss four different calibration methods for single-ended configurations
1 and their application to two different case studies. The authors conclude that explicit calculation of calibration parameters leads to the best precision and accuracy. They also admit that this is challenging to achieve for field installations since at least two baths must be maintained at different temperature levels, which is especially demanding for long-term installations [
46]. For the best calibration method, Hausner et al. report mean RMSEs of 0.131 K and 0.108 K for a lab and a field case study, respectively. The corresponding mean biases are of 0.016 K and 0.043 K, respectively. These values are calculated over sections of fiber in a validation bath. For the same fiber configuration, the manufacturer’s calibration leads to RMSEs statistics of 0.793 K and 0.583 K for the lab and field case study, respectively, while bias statistics are of 0.792 K and -0.580 K. Notably, the RMSEs are dominated by the bias component for the manufacturer calibration. This suggests that RMSEs might be substantially reduced by removing biases through calibration. Lillo et al. [
47] report calibration metrics in a similar way for five different calibration algorithms – including the one from [
39] – and five different sites (of which one is a laboratory test) for single-ended duplexed configurations. They find an algorithm that further improves the calibration methods proposed in [
39], although "
the calibration process do not necessarily fulfill physical considerations". Another important aspect that calibration may help tackle are step losses caused by fusion splices, local strains, fiber damages or tight bends [
39,
40,
43].
The second challenge that may arise with in-situ DTS measurements are temperature drifts caused by changing ambient conditions [
3,
39,
40,
41,
43]. In particular, changing ambient temperature may lead to some disturbances in the internal oven of the DTS instrument used for the manufacturer’s calibration. Hence, the need for dynamic calibration is highlighted in the literature [
46].
The third challenge with DTS measurements is the quantification of uncertainty [
37], which is more complex in field setups. Tyler et al. [
40] study spatial and temporal repeatability, as well as spatial resolution
2, for three different instruments. For the temporal repeatability, the authors find standard deviations of 0.08, 0.13 and 0.31 K for biases of 0.33, 0.18 and 0.14 K for each instrument respectively. For the spatial repeatability, standard deviations are of 0.02, 0.04 and 0.08 K and the biases are not given although it appears graphically that accuracy is better for the instruments with larger standard deviations. The authors report the use of a single calibration bath that was short (≈ 5 m) due to logistical challenges. They also characterize their temporal repeatability test as "
fairly short" (2h). For the spatial resolution, average values between 1.91 to 3.45 m are reported.
Des Tombes et al. [
45] propose an new calibration approach allowing for the quantification of uncertainty for the temperature. The temperature uncertainty solely accounts for the noise from the detectors and the uncertainty in the estimated parameters. They find a nearly constant 95% confidence bound of about ±0.3 K for an experiment with a 100 m fiber with a double-ended setup and three baths. Among other things, they observe that the contribution from the parameter estimation is small compared to the noise of the Stokes and anti-Stokes.
When DTS is applied for GSHP applications, it is in most cases unclear if calibration baths are used and how this affects the measurement uncertainty. In most cases, precision (a standard deviation value) is reported [
18,
25,
33,
38,
50]. The reported precisions are in general in the order of 0.01–0.1 K which is consistent with what is otherwise presented [
3,
40]. Accuracy is more seldom discussed. Monzó [
51] finds mean bias as high as 1.86 K for a 2.4 km long duplexed installation with six splices along the fiber length (not including the far-end splice). For the forward part of the duplexed configuration, the author finds a maximum systematic error of -0.51 K. Abuasbeh and Acuña [
29] report a maximum and mean systematic error of -0.19 K and 0.09 K, respectively, in a validation bath. Acuña et al. [
18] theoretically evaluate the systematic error that could arise from the undetermined position of the fiber inside the Borehole Heat Exchanger (BHE) under laminar flow conditions. They find a maximum possible bias of ±0.4 K for this effect. Fujii et al. [
21] use the ±1.0 K accuracy and 0.1 K resolution specified by the manufacturer.
For the GSHP field, there is a lack of consistent metrics for characterization of uncertainty. Moreover, there are some specific issues with DTS measurements. For instance, one should keep in mind that the obtained temperatures are averages in time and space. As such it seems needed to specify which sampling interval and temporal averaging are used when providing metrological metrics. Given a long enough integration time under repeatability conditions [
49], one can get any arbitrarily low random error for the measured average temperatures. For a real case, however, this metric might not be the most relevant, especially if the dynamics are important. In such a case, the uncertainty of the underlying temperature – rather than its average, might be more relevant.
In the overall reviewed literature, metrological metrics are often presented for calibration baths
3, validation baths or specific sections of fiber but it is not always clear how these metrics should be propagated to the rest of the fiber optic cable. Additionally, it is not always possible to perform an optimal calibration – i.e. a dynamic calibration with at least three different calibrated sections as suggested in [
39] – e.g. for logistics constraints [
37,
40,
46].
In this paper, a new calibration method for single-ended DTS configurations in a BHE with a single bath is proposed. In addition, a method for removing fictitious temperature drifts due to variations in ambient temperature is presented. Finally, and more importantly, the DTS measurement uncertainty is quantified for a DTRT in a 800 m deep borehole with coaxial BHE. Among other things, the uncertainty includes components from the Stokes/anti-Stokes signals, the calibration bath temperature and the parameter estimation used during calibration.
4. Discussion
DTS offers interesting perspectives in BHE and GSHP applications and has gained interest in recent years, be it for monitoring, field tests (DTRTs), validation of heat transfer models, estimation of the geothermal gradient, evaluation of undisturbed temperature or thermal conductivity maps [
19,
22,
23,
24,
25,
26,
27,
28,
29,
30,
31,
32,
33,
34,
35,
36,
37,
47].
In this study, a new calibration method and quantification of uncertainty for single-ended Raman-based DTS are proposed, as well as a correction for fictitious temperature drifts caused indirectly by ambient temperature variations. The method is developed to address sub-optimal calibration setups since those are fairly common in BHE applications. For instance, it is not always possible to use the minimum recommended of two calibration baths [
39] and field conditions may lead to systematic errors (e.g. due to ambient temperature variations). In addition, the far-end of the fiber cable is not usually accessible (since the fiber cable is inside the borehole and not spliced at the bottom). This makes the calibration of the differential loss term
more challenging. The proposed calibration method is based on one calibration bath only and uses temperature equality between the two fiber cables as an extra constraint. In addition, a correction for fictitious temperature oscillation induced by variation of ambient temperature is proposed. This correction is more specific to measurements in which the DTS instrument is subjected to significant temperature variations - typically outdoor field measurements with non field-customized DTS units. Finally, a thorough quantification of temperature uncertainty is proposed. The combined uncertainty notably includes uncertainty components from the calibration method (bottom equality condition. calibration bath temperature, linear regression), the correction for temperature oscillation and the built-in temperature averaging.
The three elements listed above are tested for a field application in a 800 m deep borehole equipped with a coaxial BHE. One fiber cable is placed in the annulus of the heat exchanger while another cable is placed in the center pipe. A single calibration bath is used for the two fiber cables.
The proposed calibration method leads to more consistent results than raw data, segregated calibration for each cable or on-site calibration using the instrument interface. The consistency is better between the two fiber cables – they show the same temperature under undisturbed condition and heat recovery – but also in time – the calibration leads to similar temperature profiles when performed in a different setup with about one year in between. Nonetheless, the different values for the differential loss between the two calibration at one year interval should be investigated further, even though they are not being strictly inconsistent according to the found uncertainty bounds.
The proposed correction of temperature drifts due to the influence of ambient air temperature variations successfully filters out oscillations from the raw data. The oscillations are filtered out for the whole test period even though the correction is only based on times at which there is a priori no reasonable correlation between the ambient air temperature and the temperature at the bottom of the borehole – typically, undisturbed condition or heat recovery without circulation.
At a given depth, the temperature uncertainty is consistent in time with 95% confidence bounds of ± 0.45, 0.58, 0.74, 0.90, 1.1, 1.3, 1.5 and 1.7 K at 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 m depth, respectively
5. The temperature uncertainty increase non-linearly with depth, with the clearly dominant component from depth larger than 200 m being the parameter estimation through linear regression performed as part of the calibration. The contribution to the combined uncertainty from time-averaging, correction of temperature drift and bottom temperature equality constraint are negligible. The contribution from the bath temperature uncertainty, the parameter
C and the Stokes/anti-Stokes are important at shallow depths
6.
These results suggest that calibration should be in focus if one wants to reduce the temperature uncertainty for deeper boreholes (> 200 m). Perhaps a way to decrease the calibration contribution to uncertainty is to use more baths, as suggested in [
39]. In particular, it would be interesting to investigate the use of a calibration bath at the fiber end to reduce calibration uncertainty. This can be achieve by splicing two fiber channels from the same cable – thereby obtaining a duplexed or double-ended configuration – or by using a single cable to measure the temperature profiles in the annulus and center pipe. Furthermore, the temperature equality prior at the BHE bottom could be kept in such configurations, which could also contribute to reduce the uncertainty (compared to a case without this constraint).
For more shallow boreholes, however, the uncertainty contributions from C and the bath temperature should also be considered when trying to reduce the temperature uncertainty. For the bath temperature, a well-mixed bath with precision thermometer can reduce uncertainty. As for C, this could achieve in similar way through another calibration bath that is better than the internal oven, i.e. where the bath temperature is more uniform and the bath temperature uncertainty is lower.
It is relevant to note that the proposed quantification of uncertainty partly includes potential temperature model errors (i.e. deviations from eqs.
2-
3). This is because model errors will show in the residuals which distribution is partly captured in the linear regression uncertainty. A case for which model error is not fully included is for instance when the variance of the residuals is dependent on the distance (in general any dependency of the residuals on
will invalidate eq.
14).
The calibration method and quantification of uncertainty are applied to a specific site with unusual characteristics compared to other BHE applications. In particular, the large borehole depth of 800 m sheds light on the different uncertainty components. Applying the methods to another site would nevertheless be positive to test the method robustness. A lab test with independent temperature measurements would be even more relevant. The influence of the choice of distributions in the Monte Carlo study for the bath and bottom conditions should be investigated in future studies. The impact of spatially and temporally varying bath temperature might also be a relevant aspect to consider in such future studies.
One of the main points of quantifying temperature uncertainty with Raman-based DTS is the verification or validation of borehole heat transfer model. Although it is hard to invalidate a model with field data due to many uncontrolled parameters (e.g. ground water flow, exact borehole geometry) [
59], DTS measurements could be very informative as to the model strengths and drawbacks. Better models lead to more accurate design and estimation of running costs. In turn, this would help improve the market penetration of environmentally-friendly technologies for heating and cooling (GSHP, BTES, ATES). Another relevant aspect is the determination of the geothermal gradient and related geothermal heat flux as highlighted in [
47].
Besides the results strictly related to the DTS calibration and uncertainty, there are some interesting thermal features that deserve further analysis but that can nevertheless be mentioned here. The first one is the heat flux inversion that happens along the BHE depth that can be seen in
Figure 5.c. At around 200 m depth, the calibrated temperature profiles in the annulus and the center pipe indeed cross each other, meaning no heat is injected (netto) below that point. This intersection moves down the BHE as time elapses under heat injection and reaches around 360 m at the end of the heat injection period. The heat flux inversion has been noticed in previous modeling work [
60,
61] for coaxial BHe with annulus as the inlet (which is sub-optimal for heat injection). A related question that arise is how much the noticed heat flux inversion would influence the result from a Thermal Response Test (TRT). After all if no heat injection occurs over a whole borehole section as is the case here, one may question if the test can provide any information regarding the thermal parameters within that section.
A second feature that can be noticed is the progressive homogenization of temperature under circulation. Using the mid-depth temperature as initial temperature uniformly applied in the ground is a longstanding assumption in long-term borehole heat transfer modeling [
62]. The more interesting aspect here is perhaps the time it takes for the temperature profile to homogenize. Here after several hours of circulation, the temperature profile is not yet stabilized. In turn, one may wonder if a long stabilization time would have an impact on heat transfer modeling, by for instance leading to a different distribution of heat flux along the borehole.
Another notable feature is the temperature disturbances that seem to occur in the topmost 200 m section of the annulus (ch1). This could be due to laminar flow regime – since that the diameter is larger in that section (165 mm) than the rest of the borehole (140 mm) – or groundwater inflow, although none of these explanations is fully satisfactory [
56].
5. Conclusions
DTS offer interesting perspectives in BHE and GSHP applications; among other things for field tests and heat transfer model validation/verification.
A new calibration method for and its associated quantification of uncertainty have been proposed in this paper for single-ended Raman-based DTS. The calibration method is based on a single calibration bath and uses temperature equality at the bottom of the BHE as an extra constraint. In addition a method to remove fictitious temperature drifts due to ambient air variations is suggested. The different methods are implemented for a case study with a 800 m deep coaxial BHE, in which a DTRT is conducted.
The calibration method and temperature drift correction show robust features and give adequate results. The quantification of uncertainty leads to 95% confidence bounds of ± 0.58, 0.74, 1.1 and 1.7 K at 200, 300, 500 and 800 m depth, respectively. The temperature uncertainty increases non-linearly with depth and is dominated by the uncertainty in the estimated parameters during the calibration process, for depths larger than 200 m. As for more shallow boreholes, the uncertainty contribution from the parameter C, the bath temperature and the Stokes/anti-Stokes also become important. All of these elements – the calibration process especially – should be focused on if the temperature uncertainty is to be reduced. Such distributed temperature measurements with quantified uncertainty are useful in determining the strengths and drawbacks of heat transfer models and to evaluate local thermal properties.
Besides the results strictly related to the calibration and uncertainty quantification, the paper offer also insights into thermal features that appears during the DTRT, namely a heat flux inversion along the borehole depth and the relatively slow temperature homogenization under circulation.