Abstract
Energy foundation technology is expected to make a significant contribution to the use of renewable energy. In this context, this paper presents the use of Finite Element simulation using PLAXIS software for modelling different benchmark applications in Geothermal Foundations. An implicit fully-coupled numerical scheme with global adaptive time stepping are implemented to ensure computational efficiency and stability. Firstly, a transient simulation of thermal response tests [1], often used to estimate the thermal conductivity of ground and thermal resistance of pile, is presented. In the second part, a Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical analysis is performed to simulate the behavior of a single heat pile subject to a thermal load cycle [2]. Several ingredients (constitutive behavior, interface finite elements etc.) are employed to simulate soil-structure interactions. The obtained solutions are validated against available simulation and experimental data to demonstrate the applicability of the simulator to energy foundation analysis and design.
Highlights
Together with ground source heat pump (GSHP) and groundwater heat pump (GWHP) systems, recently underground geotechnical structures, such as deep and shallow foundations or tunnels are being employed as energy geostructures by installing the absorber pipes directly in the structures [3]
Energy foundation technology is expected to make a significant contribution to the use of renewable energy [4]
This paper presents the use of PLAXIS, a Finite Element software, for modelling different benchmark applications in Geothermal geostructures
Summary
Together with ground source heat pump (GSHP) and groundwater heat pump (GWHP) systems, recently underground geotechnical structures, such as deep and shallow foundations or tunnels are being employed as energy geostructures by installing the absorber pipes directly in the structures [3]. The design of heat exchanger piles requires numerical modelling in different steps, from the simulation of in situ testing to the analysis of mechanical responses and energy efficiency. As this technology becomes a vital and popular part of geotechnical engineering, the use of userfriendly computer codes would be needed to perform advanced analyses in a robust and accurate way [5] [6]. In this context, this paper presents the use of PLAXIS, a Finite Element software, for modelling different benchmark applications in Geothermal geostructures. The obtained solutions are validated against available simulation and experimental data to demonstrate the applicability of the numerical approach and the capability of the simulator for energy geostructure analysis and design
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