Working principle of energy storage pile

Do energy piles have a high heat transfer and bearing capacity?

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Energy piles, combined ground source heat pumps (GSHP) with the traditional pile foundation, have the advantages of high heat transfer efficiency, less space occupation and low cost. This paper summarizes the latest research on the heat transfer and bearing capacity of energy piles.

What is an energy pile?

The energy pile represents an embedment of heat exchange pipes into the pile body. In this way, it can serve as a vertical heat exchanger in addition to its primary function of supporting the building. The additional land use and construction costs related to the conventional vertical boreholes of the GSHP system can thus be saved.

Why do buildings need a group of energy piles?

Adjacent energy piles The heat transfer capacity of a single pile is usually insufficient to cover the heating and cooling loads of a building. Thus, buildings require the activation of a group of piles to meet the thermal loads.

How to develop an optimal energy pile system?

The development of an optimal energy pile system involves complex analyzes. It comprises the selection of objective functions, the detection of decision variables and system design constraints, then the best optimization method.

How efficient is heat transfer in an energy pile?

The efficiency of heat transfer in an energy pile depends on the design parameters concerning the characteristics of the pile, pipe, concrete, fluid, and ground. The configuration of heat exchanger pipes is found to be the most influential parameter.

Why are energy piles important?

Piles with large lengths are the main way to solve local geological problems. Energy piles penetrating the groundwater layer have a high heat transfer rate because of the scouring process, but it is uneconomical to use a large amount of concrete to construct reinforced concrete piles in soft ground.