The effect of thermoactivated pile spacing on the thermo-mechanical response of energy soldier piled walls—extended numerical investigation

This study extends earlier experimental and validation work to a numerical investigation of the short-term thermo-mechanical behaviour of energy-piled walls. Building on the experimental validation, this study examines the impact of inter-pile spacing, pile head restrictions, thermo-mechanical properties, thermal load operation schemes, and thermal boundaries on the performance of an energy-piled wall system. Numerical results confirm that more and closer active piles cause the piled wall to behave more like a plate energy wall, leading to larger flexural demands on piles, higher axial loads on anchors, and greater capping beam displacements. Induced lateral deformations and structural demands can be twice as large in closely spaced piles, with axial forces in rock anchors reaching an additional load of about 25% of a single steel strand’s design capacity and vertical displacements on the capping beam up to 5 mm.