Field-Scale Experimental Study on Thermomechanical Behaviors of Super-Long and Large-Diameter Energy Piles under Liquefied Natural Gas Tank

In this work, field-scale experiments were carried out on two energy piles to investigate the mechanical behavior of the piles when subjected to thermomechanical loads under a liquefied natural gas tank. The results showed that the super-long and large-diameter energy pile exhibited a better heat transfer performance. After pile heating or cooling, the temperature in the mid-depth of the pile increased or decreased rapidly, and at the two ends, the temperature varied relatively slowly. Regarding the observed axial strain, energy pile 1 exhibited predominately compressive deformation during the coupled heating–loading process, while a certain tensile deformation was found near the pile toe of energy pile 2 during the coupled cooling–loading process. Moreover, for both energy piles, positive shaft resistances appeared predominately under both the pure mechanical and coupled thermomechanical conditions, and occasional and local occurrences of negative resistances could be related to the ground conditions on site. The settlement and bearing capacity values of the two energy piles were not significantly affected by the coupled thermomechanical loads, and thus, the serviceability of the gas tank would not diminish.