Over the past two decades, a substantial amount of research has investigated the effects of thermal loads associated with the geothermal operation of energy piles on their mechanical response. Based on this research, consensus about the need for considering the effects of thermal loads on the geotechnical and structural design of energy piles has been achieved. However, the understanding of the influence of thermal loads on the mechanical response of energy piles has prevented the determination of when the effects of these loads should be considered in performance-based design, e.g., only when addressing the deformation (at serviceability limit states) or also the failure (at ultimate limit states) of such foundations. Looking at this challenge, this paper presents an investigation of the role of thermal loads in the mechanical response of energy piles to provide a theoretically based approach for the geotechnical and structural performance-based design of such foundations. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this study and the discussed ductility-based design approach is that thermal loads cause negligible effects at ultimate limit states from both a geotechnical and a structural perspective, while they cause significant effects that should be considered at serviceability limit states.

在过去的二十年中，大量研究研究了与能量堆的地热运行相关的热负荷对其机械响应的影响。基于这项研究，就需要考虑热负荷对能量桩的岩土和结构设计的影响达成了共识。但是，由于了解热负荷对能量堆机械响应的影响，因此无法确定在基于性能的设计中应何时考虑这些负荷的影响，例如仅在解决变形时（在使用极限状态下）或此类基金会的失败（处于最终极限状态）。面对这个挑战，本文提出了对热载荷在能量桩力学响应中的作用的研究，从而为基于岩土和结构性能的基础设计提供了理论上的方法。可以从这项研究和讨论的基于延性的设计方法得出的主要结论是，从岩土和结构的角度来看，热载荷在极限极限状态下的影响可忽略不计，而在可使用极限时则应考虑这些重大影响状态。