Numerical study of the performance of energy diaphragm walls

摘要

By combining their mechanical and thermal roles, energy diaphragmwalls are being more used inrnEuropean countries.The performance of energywalls depends on the thermal exchange with the surrounding soil.rnNevertheless, thermal exchanges could be largely affected by ground water flow, and by the thermal propertiesrnof the ground. Especially, conductive and advective contributions of these exchanges may vary. In this paper,rnnumerical simulations are performed to study the influence of groundwater flow and soil thermal properties onrnthe heat transfer between energy diaphragm walls and saturated sandy soil. The effect of the active length of anrnenergy diaphragm wall on the total heat exchange phenomenon is studied. The efficiency of the system affectedrnby several heating-cooling cycles is also analyzed. The obtained results permit a better understanding for thernheat exchange between the thermo-active diaphragm walls and the surrounding soil.