The role of ground conditions on the heat exchange potential of energy walls – data

Geotechnical structures are being increasingly employed to exchange heat with the ground and supply thermal energy for heating and cooling of buildings and de-icing of infrastructure. Most current practical applications are related to energy piles, but embedded retaining walls are now also being adopted. However, analysis and design methods for these new dual use foundations and ground heat exchangers are currently lacking, making it hard to provide estimates of energy availability without recourse to full numerical simulation. This data set presents the results of thermo-hydro finite element analysis to develop charts of energy capacity that could be applied at the outline design stage for energy walls. Heat transfer rates for different conditions are presented. In particular, the influence of ground properties (hydraulic and thermal conductivities), and ground conditions, (groundwater temperature and flow velocity) are presented.