Design Tools for Thermoactive Geotechnical Systems
Abstract
This paper presents a review of current design tools used for thermoactive geotechnical systems, along with validation efforts. The capabilities of available analytical methods used for the thermal and thermomechanical design of these systems are evaluated and shortcomings of the existing methods are identified. Although the analytical methods permit accurate prediction of the thermal stress and strain response of thermoactive piles from readily available soil and concrete properties, current shortcomings consist of the ability of the methods to simulate cyclic heating and cooling effects, transient pore water pressure generation and dissipation, and the effects of radial stress changes. Recommendations are provided on how to properly address the current design requirements and the efforts to overcome shortcomings with the development of constitutive relationships fromfurther full scale and laboratory scale experimental studies on thermoactive piles. Furthermore, the need for the development of both simplified analytical tools and advanced finite element models is emphasized. In addition, the existing analytical tools should be validated using field data from recently available case studies of thermoactive piles in varying soil deposits. An urgent need for an extensive design guide for energy geostructures was identified. The guidelines should be targeted towards practitioners and include field observations and measurements, as well as laboratory and numerical studies.
Recommended Citation
P. Bourne-Webb et al., "Design Tools for Thermoactive Geotechnical Systems," DFI Journal - The Journal of the Deep Foundations Institute, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 121 - 129, Maney Publishing, Dec 2014.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1179/1937525514Y.0000000013
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Analysis; Design; Energy Geostructures; Thermal; Thermomechanical
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1937-5247
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2014 Deep Foundations Institute, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Dec 2014
Comments
The paper is an overview of the technical session presented at the International Workshop on Thermo-active Geotechnical Systems for Near-Surface Geothermal Energy, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2013. Support from NSF grant CMMI 1249656 is greatly appreciated for the organization of the workshop. The session was chaired by Peter Bourne-Webb and reported by Jean-Michel Pereira. Allen Bowers and Thomas Mimouni were the scribes of the session. The views in this paper are those of the authors alone.