Thermal Stress and Displacement Response of Geothermal Energy Piles in Sand

The present work investigates the behaviour of geothermal energy piles in sand subjected to thermal loading and the resulting soil-structure interaction numerically, using the finite element software Abaqus and user-defined material subroutines for soil. The stress-strain response of sand has been simulated using CASM constitutive model based on critical-state soil mechanics. Detailed parametric sensitivity studies have been carried out to understand the effects of relative densities of the soil, coefficients of lateral earth pressure of the ground, lengths and diameters of the pile on the deformation of pile and soil and stress response of soil. The results show that the negative shear stress generates in soil at the pile-soil interface. The lateral earth pressure coefficient in soil surrounding the pile increases due to thermal loading.