Centrifuge modelling of heating effects on energy pile performance in saturated sand

Abstract

The operation of energy piles in summer can expel excess heat of the buildings into the ground by the use of a heat pump. Despite having been implemented for decades, the design of energy piles still relies heavily on empiricism, as there is limited understanding about heating effects on pile capacity. A series of centrifuge model tests on aluminum energy piles in medium dense saturated sand is reported in this study to investigate heating effects on the settlement patterns as well as capacities of single piles. In total, four in-flight pile load tests under three different temperatures, namely 22, 37, and 52 °C, and different loading sequences were carried out. Variations of pile capacity were interpreted with the help of a nonlinear elastic analysis. The test results show that after heating at zero applied axial load, toe resistance of the pile was mobilized as a result of constrained downward thermal expansion of the pile. Heating to a higher temperature caused the neutral plane to shift towards the pile toe due to a larger degree of mobilization of end-bearing resistance. It is also found that for a pile under a maintained working load, the pile head heaved initially by 1.4%D (D, pile diameter) when the temperature increased by 30 °C, but it gradually settled to 0.8%D after 4 months of continuous heating at the constant temperature. The post-pile settlement is believed to be caused by thermal contraction of sand. Subsequent pile load tests show that pile capacities increased by 13% and 30% with incremental temperatures of 15 and 30 °C, respectively. With an increasing temperature, shaft resistance increased but at a reducing rate. At a higher elevated temperature, toe resistance increased more rapidly than shaft resistance due to a larger downward expansion of the pile. For simplicity, earth pressure coefficients with values of 1.1K0 and 1.3K0 were found to be suitable for estimating the capacities of aluminum model piles with temperature increments of 15 and 30 °C, respectively.