Revolutionizing Foundations: Advances in Thermo-Active Piling Engineering

The urban subsurface is an increasingly critical resource for addressing the growing demands of modern societies, particularly in the realms of energy and infrastructure development. This paper focuses on energy geostructures—innovative foundations that leverage underground renewable energy in a cost-effective and efficient manner. These systems integrate geotechnical engineering principles with energy functionality, providing dual benefits: structural stability and heating/cooling capabilities for buildings and infrastructure. Their performance is governed by interactions between thermal and mechanical loads, which pose challenges to address their analysis and design. Over the past 30 years, substantial research has advanced the understanding of energy piles, barrettes, walls and slabs, resulting in practical tools for their engineering applications. This study synthesizes these advancements and bridges the gap between theoretical research and real-world implementation. It presents core theoretical frameworks for evaluating energy foundations and examines a case study of a real-world installation, offering critical in-sights into their operational performance.