Effects of the ground surface thermal boundary condition on the long-term thermal performance of energy diaphragm walls

Abstract

Energy diaphragm walls have attracted increasing attention due to their high heat transfer performance. Thus, the factors that affect the thermal performance of energy walls have been investigated to provide insights for further practical applications. Numerical simulation is widely used in energy wall analysis due to the complexity of conducting field tests. Therefore, the choice of boundary conditions in the simulations is crucial; it refers to whether the model reflects reality and has a significant impact on the results. In most cases, the assumed ground surface thermal boundary is not the same (e.g., thermal insulation, constant temperature), and the ground temperature is also assumed to be constant with depth, which may result in a large loss of thermal energy or inaccurate assessment of thermal performance for the energy wall. In this respect, this paper investigates the long-term differences in thermal performance under these boundaries and considers the ground temperature that varies with depth and time, which has not been comprehensively considered before in the analysis of energy walls. The results show that accounting for air temperature or ground temperature variations with depth and time can result in a great increase in thermal performance, e.g., a 34% increase in the cooling thermal load compared with the thermal insulation boundary. In the performed parametric analysis, the results highlight the significant influence of the thermal load and wall height on the thermal differences between these boundaries. These findings provide a reference for choosing ground surface thermal boundaries and better thermal design of energy diaphragm walls.