Investigating the thermal performance of energy soldier pile walls

Abstract

Energy geo-structures are a promising application of shallow geothermal energy technologies utilising underground structures primarily build for stability to also convert them to ground heat exchangers and make thermal energy provision their secondary function. One type of energy geo-structures that has received little attention is energy soldier pile walls. This work adopts advanced numerical modelling approaches to investigate the thermal performance of these energy walls and important parameters affecting this performance including the soldier pile depth, spacing, pipe length and thermal load. The results indicate that both the soldier pile depth and spacing can impact the thermal perform..