• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.29 no.8
• /
• pp.37-51
• /
• 2013

An energy pile encases heat exchange pipes to exchange thermal energy with the surrounding ground formation by circulating working fluid through the pipes. An energy pile has many advantages in terms of economic feasibility and constructability over conventional Ground Heat Exchangers (GHEXs). In this paper, a coil-type PHC energy pile was constructed in a test bed and its thermal performance was experimentally and numerically evaluated to make a preliminary design. An in-situ thermal response test (TRT) was performed on the coil-type PHC energy pile and its results were compared with the solid cylinder source model presented by Man et al. (2010). In addition, a CFD numerical analysis using FLUNET was carried out to back-analyze the thermal conductivity of the ground formation from the Ttype PHC energy RT result. To study effects of a coil pitch of the coil-type heat exchange pipe, a thermal interference between the heat exchange pipes in PHC energy piles was parametrically studied by performing the CFD numerical analysis, then the effect of the coil pitch on thermal performance and efficiency of heat exchange were evaluated. Finally, an equivalent heat exchange efficiency factor for the coil-type PHC energy pile in comparison with a common multiple U-type PHC energy pile was obtained to facilitate a preliminary design method for the coil-type PHC energy pile by adopting the PILESIM2 program.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.23-33
• /
• 2015

In the present study, a ground heat exchanger was installed for each heat source in the system at the site to evaluate ground heat conductivity, constructability, and economic feasibility; the factors considered in the study included ground heat, groundwater, fillers (such as bentonite and pea pebbles) and the shape of the heat exchange pipe (e.g., U and D-U). The aim was to determine the ground heat exchanger appropriate for the geothermal system in the 3rd-phase construction of Incheon International Airport. A comparative cost analysis of the initial costs based on the above information showed that although the initial costs of the regular vertical closed loop-II and modified vertical closed loop were lower than those of the regular vertical closed loop-I, they could not be expected to deliver high economic efficiency from the viewpoint of constructability (filler injection, heat exchange pipe insertion). The initial costs proved to be higher in the case of Geohil.