Target audience

Professionals – such as civil and energy engineers, architects, urban project managers or geologists – and scientists who want to acquire knowledge on the energy, geotechnical and structural performance of energy geostructures.

The course will be given in English.

Requirements

• No specific experience with energy geostructures is needed.
• Basic knowledge of soil and structural mechanics.

Participants should bring their own laptop (for use during the practical application exercises).

Overview

The application of environmentally friendly technologies that exploit renewable energy sources is key to follow international agreements for the development of low-carbon buildings and infrastructures. Energy geostructures are an innovative, multifunctional technology that can be used to address the aforementioned challenge. By coupling the role of the ground structures with that of the geothermal heat exchangers, energy geostructures can serve as structural supports as well as heating and cooling elements for buildings and infrastructures.

The analysis and design of energy geostructures require the integrated knowledge of various aspects in the broad field of engineering. How can energy geostructures be analysed and designed from an energy point? What will be the energy performance of energy geostructures over time? How can energy geostructures be analysed and designed from a geotechnical and structural point of view? How can the coupled action of thermal and mechanical loads be considered through current standards and latest international recommendations?

Objectives

• Understand and analyse the thermal and mechanical behaviour of energy geostructures, with reference to the latest scientific achievements
• Be able to perform the energy, geotechnical and structural design of energy geostructures
• Learn how to exploit current standards available at the European level (e.g., the so-called “Eurocodes”) for the design of energy geostructures
• Be able to perform all of the key steps involved in the analysis and design process of energy geostructures with practical application exercises
• To learn on some practical examples of recent projects worldwide

Programme

PART A – Introduction (Day 1)

• Renewable energy exploitation for a sustainable development
  Governmental incentives and goals at the European level. Geothermal energy and geothermal systems.
• Energy geostructures: the technology
  Projects worldwide. The three main components of Ground Source Heat Pump Systems. Typical operations and applications. Challenges.

PART B – Energy aspects (Day 1)

• Heat and mass transfers in the context of energy geostructures
  Principles and modes of heat transfer. Energy conservation equation. Initial and boundary conditions. Principles and modes of mass transfer. Mass conservation equation. Initial and boundary conditions for energy conservation equation.
• Analytical modelling of steady state heat and mass transfers
  The thermal resistance concept for time-independent solutions. Heat transfer in energy piles and other circular heat exchangers. Heat transfer and storage capacity of energy piles. Heat transfer in energy walls and other plane heat exchangers.
• Analytical modelling of transient heat transfer
  The thermal resistance concept for time-dependent solutions. Heat transfer around energy piles and other circular heat exchangers. Heat transfer around energy walls and other plane heat exchangers.
• Estimation of thermal potential of sites and design parameters
  Thermal response test. Other relevant experimental laboratory tests for energy design.
• Application exercise session on the analysis of the thermo-hydraulic behaviour of an energy geostructure.

PART C – Geotechnical and structural aspects (Day 2)

• Thermo-mechanical behaviour of single and groups of energy piles
  Effects caused by the application of thermal and mechanical loads to energy piles. Group effects. Thermo-mechanical schemes. The load-transfer concept. The Thermo-Pile software for the analysis and design of energy piles.
• Thermo-mechanical behaviour of energy walls and energy tunnels
  Effects caused by the application of thermal and mechanical loads to energy walls and energy tunnels.
• Thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of soils
  Effects caused by the application of thermal and mechanical loads to coarse- and fine-grained soils.
• Thermo-mechanical behaviour of soil-concrete interfaces
  Effects caused by the application of thermal and mechanical loads to coarse- and fine-grained soil-concrete interfaces.
• Application exercise session on the analysis of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of an energy geostructure.
• Visit of laboratory experimental facilities.

PART D – Integrated energy, geotechnical and structural design (Day 3)

• Development of projects of energy geostructures
  Presentation of realised projects by practitioner companies: Mr. Tony Amis for GI-Energy and Mr. Didier Mülhauser for Marti SA.
• Performance-based design in the framework of Eurocodes
  The Eurocode programme. Limit states and design situations to consider in the design of energy geostructures. Actions. Verification of requirements through partial factor method. Combinations of actions at ultimate and serviceability limit states. Partial factors for thermal loads acting on energy geostructures. Geotechnical and structural verifications.
• Application exercise session on the geotechnical and structural performance-based design of an energy geostructure.

Teaching approach

• Optimum balance between theory and practice (application sessions including analytical and numerical simulation exercises)
• Teaching based on cutting-edge scientific achievements
• Case studies based on real energy geostructure projects, for which the Programme Directors worked as expert consultants

Certification

A certificate of attendance will be delivered at the end of the course.

Organisation

Laboratory of Soil Mechanics (LMS), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)

Programme Directors

• Prof. Lyesse Laloui, Ph.D.
  Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
• Prof. Alessandro F. Rotta Loria, Ph.D., P.E.
  Northwestern University, Chicago, U.S.A.

Invited speakers

• Mr. Tony Amis
  Energy expert, GI-Energy, U.S.A.
  
• Mr. Didier Mülhauser
  Contractor expert, Marti SA, Switzerland
  
• Mr. Luis de Pereda Fernández
  Architect, ENERES, Spain

Practical information

Dates and schedule

• Wednesday, March 25, 2019  from 9 am to 5 pm
• Thursday, March 26, 2019 – from 9 am to 5 pm
• Friday, March 27, 2019 – from 9 am to 5 pm

Course venue

EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Course fee

1’900.- Swiss Francs *, including:

• Course material
• Three-month license of academic version of the Thermo-Pile software
• Lunches and refreshments

* 10% special discount for contributing members of EPFL Alumni

Registration deadline

March 13, 2020

Useful documents and links

• EPFL News, 01.11.2019