Previous studies have focused on the horizontal buried pipe section regarding the performance improvement of the earth-to-air heat exchanger, showing limited attention paid to the vertical air inlet section. In this study, we proposed a novel earth-to-air heat exchange system utilising an inlet plenum chamber (IPC-EAHE) to pre-treat the outdoor air in the inlet section. To evaluate its cooling performance, a numerical model was developed and validated based on a field experiment. The results showed a good agreement between simulated and experimental data, with a maximum absolute relative error of 4.43 % for the outlet air temperature. Then comparative studies between the IPC-EAHE and traditional EAHE are conducted under three airflow rates. Results indicated that the IPC-EAHE has a lower and more stable outlet air temperature than traditional EAHE. Compared to the traditional EAHE, the IPC-EAHE reduces the fluctuation of outlet air temperature by 53.13 %, 29.84 %, and 26.60 % under the airflow rates of 190 m³/h, 380 m³/h, and 570 m³/h, respectively. This improves the free cooling potential of EAHE for buildings. Moreover, the IPC-EAHE can reduce the buried pipe length by around 60.30 %, 53.0 %, and 50.0 % for three airflow rates, respectively. The friction resistance loss of the IPC section is at least 20 % less than that of the traditional EAHE vertical inlet section. The above results demonstrate that the IPC-EAHE offers greater renewable energy utilization efficiency and less buried pipe length than the traditional EAHE.

以往关于地气换热器性能提升的研究主要集中在水平埋地管段，对垂直进风段的关注有限。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种新型地对空热交换系统，该系统利用入口增压室 (IPC-EAHE) 对入口部分的室外空气进行预处理。为了评估其冷却性能，基于现场实验开发并验证了数值模型。结果表明，模拟数据与实验数据吻合良好，出风温度的最大绝对相对误差为 4.43%。然后在三种气流速率下对 IPC-EAHE 和传统 EAHE 进行了比较研究。结果表明，与传统 EAHE 相比，IPC-EAHE 具有更低且更稳定的出口空气温度。³ /h、380 m ³ /h、570 m ³ /h。这提高了 EAHE 对建筑物的自然冷却潜力。此外，对于三种气流速率，IPC-EAHE 可将埋地管道长度分别减少约 60.30%、53.0% 和 50.0%。IPC 段的摩擦阻力损失比传统 EAHE 垂直入口段至少减少 20%。上述结果表明，与传统 EAHE 相比，IPC-EAHE 可提供更高的可再生能源利用效率和更短的埋管长度。