Application of shallow energy piles for the purpose of heating and cooling of buildings

Abstract

Shallow energy piles are these days internationally being implemented for serving as heat exchanging media between the ground and the building in addition to supporting structural loads. This research aims at providing the basic concepts for the application of energy piles for a portion of the total demands of high-rise buildings in Ethiopia, specifically heating and cooling demands. Preliminary estimation of the number of energy piles to cover a certain portion of the total heating and cooling demands of a selected building in Addis Ababa showed the potential for its application in the future. Investigation of the behaviour of energy piles due to the action of cycling heating and cooling loads by using finite element software TOCHNOG were also performed by employing the appropriate hypo-plasticity constitutive model for the soil layers. The measured values of the thermo-mechanically loaded pile were reasonably simulated by the finite element model. The coupled thermomechanical cyclic thermal and mechanical loads were found to reduce the settlements of the foundation significantly, which can be considered as an additional advantage of this foundation technique for high rise buildings.