A Case Study of Isolated Foundations on Energy Piles – from Design to Implementation

Energy geostructures are an innovative and sustainable renewable energy technology that has been demonstrated to be a successful solution for heating and cooling of buildings while contributing to CO₂ emissions reductions. Therefore, the advantages of the technology together with the existing successful implementation examples has led to an increase trend of implementation of these structures. Different types of structures and foundations have started to be used for energy equipping. The paper presents the preliminary considerations of a real project implementation of energy geostructures at the New Unit of an Emergency Hospital in Romania. A specific type of energy foundation system was implemented for structural and economic reasons, represented by isolated foundations on energy piles. Compared to the classical pile foundation with general raft on top, this system presents several differences and challenges in term of both energy and mechanical aspects. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the particularities of such energy foundation, focusing especially on the thermo-mechanical behavior of the piles.