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Behaviour of the pile–soil interface is important to correctly predict the response of floating piles in terms of displacement and lateral friction. Regarding energy piles, which couple the structural roles of deep foundations with the principle of shallow geothermal energy, the response of pile–soil interfaces is influenced by seasonal and daily cyclic thermal variations. Accordingly, the goal of this paper is to experimentally investigate the response of the pile–soil interface at different temperatures. This experimental campaign aims to analyse (i) the cyclic mobilization of the shear strength of the soil–pile interface that is induced by thermal deformation of the pile and (ii) the direct influence of temperature variations on the soil and soil–pile interface behaviour. In this study, a direct shear device was developed and calibrated for nonisothermal soil–structure interface testing. It appears that the sand–concrete interface was affected by cyclic degradation but not affected directly by temperature. Conversely, the response of the clay–concrete interface changed at different temperatures, showing an increase of strength with increasing temperature, presumably due to the effects of temperature on clay deformation.

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The possibility of equipping diaphragm walls as ground heat exchangers to meet the full or partial heating and cooling demands of overlying or adjacent buildings has been explored in recent years. In this paper, the factors affecting the energy performance of diaphragm walls equipped as heat exchangers are investigated through finite element modelling. The numerical approach employed is first validated using available experimental data and then applied to perform parametric analyses. Parameters considered in the analysis include panel width, the ratio between the wall and excavation depths, heat transfer pipe spacing, concrete cover, heat-carrier fluid velocity, concrete thermal properties and the temperature difference between the air within the excavation and the soil behind the wall. The results indicate that increasing the number of pipes by reducing their spacing is the primary route to increasing energy efficiency in the short term. However, the thermal properties of the wall concrete and the temperature excess within the excavation space are also important, with the latter becoming the most significant in the medium to long term. This confirms the benefits of exploiting the retaining walls installed for railway tunnels and metro stations where additional sources of heat are available.

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