Single Energy Pile Research Articles

Performance of elevated energy pile groups with different pile spacing in clay subjected to cyclic non-symmetrical thermal loading

There is an increasing interest and use of energy foundation worldwide. Full-scale tests, physical model tests at one Earth’s gravity and at elevated gravity in a geotechnical centrifuge and numerical simulations have been widely reported in the literature. Almost all studies have focused on single energy piles (EPs) and pile groups subjected to symmetrical thermal loads, although it is not unusual to have energy pile groups stressed by non-symmetrical thermal loads. In this study, a series of non-symmetrical thermal loading centrifuge model tests were conducted in saturated soft clay (OCR = 1.7), which is much vulnerable to temperature changes. The tests aim to investigate the effects of pile spacing on the serviceability of floating energy pile groups. Fifteen cycles of non-symmetrical thermal loading are applied to three EPs in 2 x 2 elevated energy pile groups with 3D and 5D (D denotes pile diameter) pile spacing. The thermally induced irreversible settlement and tilting in the 3D-pile group are 200% and 300% larger than those in the 5D one, respectively. Contrary to the 5D-pile group where the serviceability criteria (EN 1997-1:2004) are satisfied, the settlement and tilting are 30% and 200% larger than the criteria in the 3D one, respectively.

Thermomechanical Soil–Structure Interaction in Single Energy Piles Exhibiting Reversible Interface Behavior

Abstract Analytical solutions for displacement, strain, and stress in a single energy pile provide rational, mechanics-based qualitative and quantitative understanding of thermomechanical load tran...

Thermomechanical Behavior of Energy Piles and Interactions within Energy Pile–Raft Foundations

AbstractEnergy pile groups generally show different behavior than single energy piles because of the presence of rafts and the thermomechanical interaction between piles. This paper presents the re...

Experimental results on an energy pile within a sheet pile wall in Napoli

Energy geo-structures are renewable energy solutions with a double role of structural support and heat exchangers. Some installations are recorded worldwide, but only limited information is available regarding the impact of thermal processes on the structural and geotechnical performance of energy geo-structures. A proper experimental campaign was conducted within the underground railway construction site of Piazza Municipio in Napoli (South Italy). An energy sheet pile wall was built and equipped with fibre optic sensors system allowing the evaluation of strains and temperature distributions along the piles, during geothermal processes. Results on a single energy pile and measurements undertaken during the field experiment are presented highlighting the effects of temperature variations on the mechanical behaviour of the soil‐structure system. From temperature measurements, it can be observed that, due to the excavation, there was a strong influence of the outside air temperature. Despite measurement uncertainties and some data gaps resulting from cut cables, the data presented makes a contribution to improving the available monitored case studies in the literature on energy structures.

Effect of pile and heat exchanger properties on total heat extraction of an energy pile - A numerical study

Geothermal energy is one of the potential energy resources to meet future energy demand keeping environmental pollution under control. This paper presents the use of geothermal energy for space heating from energy pile. An energy pile with a single U tube heat exchanger of polyethylene (PE) pipe was modeled in this study. The effect of pile and heat exchanger properties on the total heat extraction was studied by the finite element analysis using COMSOL Multiphysics. The 3D model was developed and validated based on the literature reported results of an experimental thermal performance of a borehole equipped with a single and double U tube heat exchanger. Tetrahedral elements were considered for simulation of a 3D model. The model of a single energy pile of certain dimensions with different soil layers was considered, each soil layers were associated with different temperature. The effect of various parameters such as the length of concrete pile, the diameter of concrete pile, the thickness of U pipe, the inner diameter of U pipe and velocity of fluid inside the U pipe on amount of heat extraction was studied for an energy pile equipped with a single U tube heat exchanger. It was observed that the most influential parameters in increasing the outlet temperature of the heat exchanger loop are the diameter of the concrete pile, the inner diameter of U pipe and the velocity of fluid inside the U pipe.

Finite element analyses of energy piles using different constitutive models

Energy piles are foundation elements having the double scope of transferring structural loads from the structure to the ground and of exchanging heat with the surrounding soil. It follows that pile state of stress and settlement are altered by the time-dependent temperature change in both pile and soil. This work is aimed at investigating the effect of thermal cycles on the behaviour of a single energy pile. To this end, fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical analyses have been carried out using the Finite Element code ABAQUS. The single pile is installed in a normally consolidated clay behaving according to different constitutive models involving Mohr-Coulomb, Modified Cam Clay and Hypoplastic. The latter is employed with and without the thermal formulation capable of accounting for the thermal collapse of NC clays during heating. A single free-head pile is considered and the results are presented in terms of pile axial force and settlement developed cycle by cycle.

Field test on thermal response characteristics of an energy pile in underground row piles

Underground row piles are usually used in excavation of underground structures and abandoned after structural construction. The heat exchanger tubes embedded in the underground row piles can be severed as energy piles, which can exchange shallow geothermal energy. The construction process of the energy pile in the underground row piles was introduced. Compared with the traditional single energy pile, there is a special characteristic of the energy pile in underground row piles: piles are linked as a whole by the top beam at the top of the row pile. Field tests on the thermal response and thermo-mechanical characteristics of the energy pile in underground row piles were performed. The stable input power of 2.07 kW. The distribution of temperature, strain, and stress of pile body along depth were measured and discussed. It shows that the measured comprehensive thermal conductivity coefficient of soil is 3.72W/(m×K). In the thermo-mechanical analysis after heating, due to the end restrains by the top beam and toe in stiff rock, the rate of thermal stress to temperature change at the top and toe are -0.101 MPa/℃ (34% of fully restrain) and -0.061 MPa/℃ (20% of fully restrain).

Cross validation of analytical solutions against the computational model predictions of the response of end bearing energy pile

Predictions of responses of a single energy pile to a combined mechanical and thermal loading are presented. They were obtained from computational and analytical models. The former model provided predictions based on a coupled thermal hydro-mechanical finite element analysis while the predictions of the latter were obtained from the recently derived analytical solutions. The energy pile is surrounded by a single uniform soil layer underlain by a very stiff bedrock. Two scenarios of temperature history were considered. In the first scenario the pile remained in a net heated state while the second one induced a net cooled state. In both loading scenarios a compressive axial load was applied at the pile head prior to the thermal loading. The net heating induced an upward axial displacement, tensile strain and compressive stress while the net cooling induced a downward vertical pile displacement, compressive strain and tensile stress. In spite of different methods of obtaining the soil stiffness for computational and analytical models the predictions of the axial pile displacement, stress and strain show a very good agreement.

Numerical modelling of heat exchanger pile in pyroclastic soil

Energy piles are an innovative technology that couples the role of the structural foundation to the role of the heat exchanger to satisfy the energy needs of buildings and infrastructures. In the last decade insight into the mechanisms governing the thermo-mechanical response of single energy piles have been gained via full-scale in-situ tests, numerical analyses and model-scale experiments. The numerical approaches allow testing a large variety of configurations, geometries, materials, thermo-mechanical loadings and boundary conditions in a rather controlled but relatively easy and cost-effective manner. As a widespread habit it should be remarked that the temperature changes adopted in the piles have been only rarely justified based on realistic heating and cooling demands of live buildings. This numerical study investigates the effects of combination of mechanical and thermal loads on the mechanical behaviour of a single energy pile embedded in a typical pyroclastic soil deposit of Campania region, in Southern Italy. Thermal loads over one year have been determined by means of Design Builder software analysing a building in Napoli; the intermittent operation of the heat pump over daily time scale is properly modelled in the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical axisymmetric FE analyses. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to investigate the effects of the surface thermal boundary conditions.

FEM Analysis and Simplified Approach for a Single Energy Pile Subjected to Thermomechanical Loads

The distribution of temperature in sand soils was measured through laboratory tests, and the temperature influence on friction resistances at the concrete-soil interface was analyzed. Based on the results of laboratory tests, the finite element model was established using the sequential thermal coupling method. The influences of temperature on the bearing characteristics of energy pile were analyzed. The analysis results show that the cyclic temperature will cause additional displacement along pile depth. It is pointed out that if applied vertical loads at energy pile head exceed the value from which nonlinear settlements would be initiated, irrecoverable additional settlement will occur at pile head. Based on the analysis results, a simplified approach was proposed to estimate the zero point of additional displacement along pile shaft and the additional axial pile force. The comparison between the calculated results obtained by the proposed method and that of ABAQUS on single energy pile was given to verify the accuracy of the proposed method. It is shown that reasonable predictions can be obtained without expensive and time-consuming analyses by the proposed method in this paper.

Thermo-mechanical behaviour of floating energy pile groups in sand

This paper presents the experimental results of small-scale model tests of an instrumented floating energy pile group in which the piles were embedded in dry medium-dense sand and subjected to the seasonal temperature pattern of the city of Nanjing in China. The study also included a model test to assess the effect of including nonthermal piles on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the floating energy pile group. For comparison, a model test of a single floating energy pile embedded in the same soil and subjected to a similar temperature pattern was also conducted. The results show that the thermo-mechanical behaviour of an energy pile group is different from that of a single energy pile in terms of the thermally induced change in axial pile stress and the displacement of the pile top and tip. This difference in behaviour could be explained by the higher lateral confining pressure expected on a single pile than on a pile in a group due to pile interaction effects, which could lead to different end restraint boundary conditions. We conclude that the thermo-mechanical behaviour of an energy pile is controlled mainly by the end restraint boundary conditions.

On the influence of thermal cycles on the yearly performance of an energy pile

Thermo active piles have been studied as an efficient solution to minimize greenhouse emissions and achieve economic advantages. So far, this technology has received only partial acceptance by the industry, because of the impact on the serviceability of the system in the long-term. The aim of this work is to perform a tool able to numerically investigate the thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of a single energy pile, subjected to mechanical and thermal loads, in two sites: London (UK) and Napoli (Italy). The former location is used to validate the developed model against the experimental data available in the literature (Bourne-Webb et al. 2009), while the latter is proposed to evaluate the applicability of such technology in the Neapolitan area. Some analyses on the behaviour of the energy pile have been carried out for approximately one year (400 days), and the influence of daily cycles on modelling processes is underlined comparing the results of three different ways of simulating the same energy demand (considering daily temperature variations, neglecting them, and using average values of temperature). The outcomes show that the thermal-induced displacements, pore water pressure variations and axial loads are influenced by the mode of application of the thermal law and deserve to be taken into account in the geotechnical design, even if, in the Napoli case, are not detrimental to the structural functions of the soil–pile system.The main goals of the study can be summarized in the following points: (i) the geotechnical performance and the temperature variations provided during heat exchange operations, comparing three different ways of application of the same energy demand, (ii) the role of the hydraulic processes and the key factors that influence the pore water pressure generation, (iii) the thermal sustainability of the energy pile operations. These aspects are useful for the design practice as well as the numerical models.

Study on heat transfer performance of energy pile in GSHP system

Targeting the heat transfer performance of energy pile in ground source heat pump system (GSHP), the physical models of the single energy pile and the 3*3 energy piles in the surrounding soil were established. CFD software was used to simulate heat transfer processes based on the Finite Element Method. In cooling mode, heat transfer rate (Q, W•m-1) gradually decreases and eventually stabilizes at around 60 W•m-1 with system running for one month. For the 3*3 energy piles, the average temperature of the whole soil zone decreases by about 0.030℃ after a complete cycle of one year. In general, heat extraction from and injection into the soil can keep balanced, and intermission periods during spring and autumn can promote the recovery of soil temperature. Simulation results can be used as theoretical basis for the design of the Energy Pile GSHP.

On the understanding of cyclic interaction mechanisms in an energy pile group

SummaryIntegrating ground heat exchanger elements into concrete piles is now considered as an efficient energy solution for heating/cooling of buildings. In addition to the static load of buildings, the concrete piles also undergo a cycle of thermal deformation. In the case of single energy pile, calculation methods already exist and permit to perform a proper geotechnical design. In the case of energy pile group, the thermo‐mechanical interactions within the group are more complex. Very few experimental results on the energy pile group are available so that numerical analysis can be an interesting way to provide complementary results about their behavior. This paper deals with a numerical analysis including a comparison between a single energy pile and an energy pile group with different boundary conditions at the pile head. In order to take into account the stress reversal induced by the thermal expansions and contractions, a cyclic elastoplastic constitutive model is introduced at the soil–pile interface. The analysis aims to give some insights about the long‐term cyclic interaction mechanisms in the energy pile group. Based on this qualitative study, some guidance can be brought for the design of energy piles in the case where group effects should be considered. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.