Supervisors - Dr. Anthony Leung, University of Dundee and Prof. Simon Wheeler, University of Glasgow
PhD Student - Davide Vitali, University of Dundee
Status - Closed
The objective of the project is to explore the effectiveness of using geothermal piles as energy storage to improve rain-induced instability of embankments (ultimate limit state) and also for road surface de-icing (serviceability limit state). To investigate the mechanism(s) of how pile heating affects the water regime in unsaturated soil, greater understanding on water-heat-vapour flow at the soil-atmosphere continuum will also be developed. This project will be carried out in the context of Scottish infrastructure and attempt to create a dataset pertinent to this geographical setting.
The outcome of the research will be to provide a high-quality dataset and physical evidence to justify the dual-function of geothermal piles for enhancing embankment performance under the threat of climate change. It is hoped that the exploitation of renewable energy sources using the newly-proposed system could provide an alternative sustainable engineering solution for improving the design and resilience of transport infrastructure embankments.
Through this research, new scientific knowledge on soil-thermopile interaction will shed some lights on other engineering applications, such as energy foundation which share similar research questions to this project. Greater understanding gained on coupled water-heat-vapour flow at soil-atmosphere continuum will provide useful insights for improving numerical modelling technique on soil-atmosphere boundary, which is known to be complex and have significant challenges to account for both precipitation (both rainfall and snowfall) and evaporation events. This improvement will benefit not only geothermal system (of which the efficiency is largely governed by climate) but also wider geotechnical and geoenvironmental problems that involve close interaction with the atmosphere.