Prediction of Heat Exchange Rate in PHC Energy Piles

The use of energy pile foundation has increased for economic utilization of geothermal energy. In particular, coil-shaped ground heat exchanger (GHE) is preferred to the conventional U-shaped exchanger to ensure better efficiency of heat exchange rate. This paper presents a numerical and experimental study on the heat transfer behavior of PHC energy piles. Field thermal performance tests (TPTs) were conducted for the PHC energy piles installed in a partially saturated weathered granite soil deposit, in which two types of GHEs were considered: W and coil shaped GHEs. Besides, three-dimensional finite element analyses were also conducted, and the results were compared with the experimental results. According to the results of TPT and numerical analyses, the coil shaped GHE showed 10~15% higher heat exchange rate than the W type GHE in the PHC energy piles.