The technology of embedding heat exchange tubes in diaphragm walls is a new direction for Ground-coupled Heat Pumps (GCHP). This paper examines the heat transfer model and design method for geothermal heat exchangers in diaphragm walls, which are seldom investigated in the world. Two-dimensional (2D) heat transfer models for diaphragm wall heat exchangers (DWHE) are established. A design method for DWHE is further developed to calculate the hourly heat exchange capacity of DWHE and to get the reasonable design parameter of DWHE. The DWHE model over the excavation line has the same changing trend with numerical solutions, and the relative errors between them are less than 2%. The relative errors of calculated heat exchange rate per meter using DWHE model and measured data are less than 6% after running 10 h. The relative errors of temperature between DWHE model under the excavation line and the measured data at different positions are no more than 9%, whereas the relative error between the tradition models in GCHP (line source model and finite-line source model) and the measured data may reach as much as 40%. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.