• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.361-375
• /
• 2015

An energy pile is one of the novel ground heat exchangers (GHEX's) that is a economical alternative to the conventional closed-loop vertical GHEX. The combined system of both a structural foundation and a GHEX contains a heat exchange pipe inside the pile foundation and allows a working fluid circulating through the pipe, inducing heat exchange with the ground formation. In this paper, a group of energy piles equipped with parallel U-type (5, 8 and 10 pairs) heat exchange pipes was constructed in a test-bed by fabricating in large-diameter cast-in-place concrete piles. In addition, a closed-loop vertical GHEX with 30m depth was constructed nearby to conduct in-situ thermal response tests (TRTs) and to compare with the thermal performance of the cast-in-place energy piles. A series of thermal performance tests was carried out with application of an artificial cooling and heating load to evaluate the heat exchange rate of energy piles. The applicability of cast-in-place energy piles was evaluated by comparing the relative heat exchange efficiency and heat exchange rate with preceding studies. Finally, it is concluded that the cast-in-place energy piles constructed in the test-bed demonstrate effective and stable thermal performance compared with the other types of GHEX.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.1049-1061
• /
• 2013

In this paper, a relative heat exchange rate is numerically compared for cast-in-place concrete energy piles with different heat exchange pipe configurations, and a new design method for energy piles is proposed. An equivalent heat exchange rate was estimated for the W-type (one series loop), multiple U-type (four parallel loops), and coil-type heat exchanger installed in the same large-diameter drilled shaft. In order to simulate a cooling operation in summer by a CFD analysis, the LWT (leaving water temperature) into a energy pile was fixed at $35^{\circ}C$ and then the EWT (entering water temperature) into a heat pump was monitored. In case of continuously applying the artificial maximum cooling load for 100 hours, all of the three types of heat exchangers show the marginally similar heat exchange rate. However, in case of intermittently applying the cooling load with a cycle of 8 hours operation-16 hours off for 7 consecutive days, the coil type heat exchanger exhibits a heat exchange rate only 86 % of the multiple U-type due to measurable thermal interference between pipe loops in the energy pile. On the other hand, the W-type possesses the similar heat exchange rate to the multiple U-type. The equivalent heat exchange rates for each configuration of heat exchangers obtained from the CFD analysis were adopted for implementing the commercial design program (PILESIM2). Finally, a design method for cast-in-place concrete energy piles is proposed along with a design chart in consideration of typical design factors.

• Land and Housing Review
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.169-175
• /
• 2012

In recent, there are many studies associated with energy piles to save initial construction cost for ground source heat pump system. In this study, to evaluate geothermal exchange rates two types (a connection type and a slinky type) of cast-in-place energy piles (PRD, 4.5m in depth, 1,200 mm in diameter) were constructed for the tests and their efficiencies were compared with numerical analysis results. As a result, starting with operation, geothermal exchange rate gradually decreases due to exchange of lower ground temperature. In the case of connection type, temperature difference is $0.37^{\circ}C$ in heating mode and $0.34^{\circ}C$, in cooling mode, respectively. In addition, in case of a connection type, geothermal exchange rate in heating mode is 2,314W/m and in cooling mode, 252.2W/m whose value is 9% higher than in heating mode. In the case of slinky type, the average geothermal exchange rate in heating mode is 168.0W/m, which is about 27% lower than that of connection type.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.5-21
• /
• 2015

An energy pile is a novel type of ground heat exchangers (GHEX's) which sets up heat exchange pipes inside a pile foundation, and allows to circulate a working fluid through the pipe for exchanging thermal energy with the surrounding ground stratum. Using existing foundation structure, the energy pile can function not only as a structural foundation but also as a GHEX. In this paper, six full-scale energy piles were constructed in a test bed with various configurations of the heat exchange pipe inside large-diameter cast-in-place piles, that is, three parallel U-type heat exchangers (5, 8 and 10 pairs), two coil type heat exchangers (with a 500 mm and 200 mm pitch), and one S-type heat exchanger. During constructing the energy piles, the constructability of each energy pile was evaluated with consideration of the installation time, the number of workers and any difficulty for installing. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of energy piles, the thermal performance tests were carried out by applying intermittent (8 hours operating-16 hours pause) artificial cooling operation to simulate a cooling load for commercial buildings. Through the thermal performance tests, the heat exchange rates of the six energy piles were evaluated in terms of the heat exchange amount normalized with the length of energy pile and/or the length of heat exchange pipe. Finally, the economic feasibility of energy pile was evaluated according to the various types of heat exchange pipe by calculating demanded expenses per 1 W/m based on the thermal performance test results along with the market value of heat exchange pipes and labor cost.