The influence of geometry on the heat exchange potential of embedded planar retaining walls with seasonally-balanced thermal load

Abstract

A number of operational cases exist where embedded retaining walls, used in the construction of underground spaces such as basements and shallow tunnels, have also been utilised as ground-heat exchangers in shallow geothermal energy systems. These are complex structures in terms of their geometry, the surrounding temperature field and boundary conditions, and there are currently no methods to assess their heat exchange capacity in a simple and expedient manner. This contribution uses the finite element method to validate the use of the method in predicting heat flow for this application and then, to assess the influence of wall and excavation geometry in the heat exchange process. The influence of the soil and wall thermal conductivity is shown to be quasi-linear with the latter showing the greatest influence on peak heat exchange. The work identifies a geometric parameter - the ratio of excavation depth to total wall panel depth, H/L which in combination with the wall thickness (D), provide a consistent and simple means by which the heat exchange potential can be estimated, for a given set of wall and soil thermal properties and boundary conditions.