Research on pile performance and state-of-the-art practice in cold regions

A pile foundation is commonly adopted in geotechnical engineering to support structures, and its application has been extended to cold-regions engineering. In past decades, a host of scholars investigated pile behaviors and proposed design guidelines for seasonally frozen ground or permafrost. This paper reviews the research with respect to pile performance and engineering practice in cold regions, organized as follows: (1) creep tests and bearing capacity, (2) frost-jacking hazards, (3) laterally loaded piles, (4) dynamic responses, (5) refreezing due to concrete-hydration heat, and (6) improved countermeasures and design methods. We first summarize previous research and recent progress; then, predict the development trend of pile foundations in cold regions and recommend further research.     

Use of fly ash with no water consumption for cold regions transportation infrastructure

The construction period in cold regions is very short due to problems related to excavation and use of frozen soils in embankment construction, which leads to excessive deformations upon thawing. Also, handling of compaction water is critical due to freezing temperatures. Coalburning thermal power plants are very common in cold regions to supply electricity. The inorganic part of the pulverized coal after burning produces fly ash, which is available in large volumes. Due to excavation difficulties and the poor engineering behavior of frozen soils in cold regions, the utilization of fly ash when it is readily available must be promoted. Any construction technique which utilizes alternative materials like fly ash and minimizes water consumption has a potential to extend the short construction season and even allow service and maintenance during extreme weather conditions. This paper presents two potential techniques to solve the moisture affinity of silt-sized materials like fly ash. One technique involves in-plant production of fly ash pellets using cold-bonding pelletization to manufacture aggregates of up to 40,000-μm diameter from 15- to 60-μm-diameter fly ash grains. Large disc pelletizers have annual production capacities of up to one million ton at a reasonable cost. The product has adequate strength for embankment construction even when no water is used and no compaction is applied. The second technique is an in situ mixing technique which uses snow instead of compaction water for fly ash. The snow is the main element in this technique to compact the embankment. Water is needed for the hydration reactions to form cementitious minerals in fly ash. The slower the hydration reaction, the greater the crystal growth of cementitious minerals. In the proposed technique, in situ snow is mixed with fly ash and is compacted on-site. The temperature increase due to the hydration reaction of fly ash upon contact with snow crystals provides water for continued long-term hydration, which results in high strength, a high void ratio, light weight, and high thermal insulation capability. The presented techniques have the potential to extend the short construction season in cold regions and will provide fill material, decreasing the need for excavation. Both techniques are well documented under laboratory conditions, the research results have been published, and the techniques are ready for field trials to assess implementability.     

Railroad bed bearing strength in the period of thawing and methods of its enhancement

The practice of building and operating of railroad beds shows that the greatest at enuation of soils occurs in the spring, during their transition from the frozen to thawed state. The greatest influenc...     

关中平原人工林地的干层及其成因

根据关中平原人工林地土层含水量测定,研究了0~6m土层含水量的变化、干层特点、分布和形成原因。分析得出,在年降水量小于600mm的中国西北地区,人工林地的干层是普遍发育的自然现象,干层形成的主要原因是降水量少决定的重力-毛管水带厚度明显小于4m,引起干层发育的直接作用的水分因素是薄膜水带埋藏深度小、含水量低、运移速度缓慢,而乔木树种的耗水则是引起干层发育的植物因子。关中和黄土高原重力-毛管水带与薄膜水带分布深度很清楚地指示,该区的土壤干层主要是自然原因决定的,不论是人工林还是自然林,厚层黄土上的中龄林一般都有干层发育。在干层发育弱的地区可以造林,在发育强的地区则不适宜造林。     

Characterization of frozen soil-cement mixture for berm construction in cold regions

Lagoon berms in western Alaska are difficult to design and build due to limited resources, high cost of construction and materials, and warm permafrost conditions. This paper explores methods to treat locally available frozen materials and use them for berm construction. The goal is to find an optimized mix ratio for cement and additives that can be effective in increasing the strength and decreasing the thaw settlement of an ice-rich frozen silty soil. Soil of similar type and ice content to the permafrost found at a project site in Eek, Alaska is prepared in a cold room. The frozen soil is pulverized and cement, additives and fibers are added to the samples for enhancing shear strength and controlling thaw settlement. Thaw settlement and direct shear testsare performed to assess strength and settlement characteristics. This paper presents a sample preparation method, data from thaw settlement and direct shear tests, and analyses of the test results and preliminary conclusions.     

Pseudo-bending method for three-dimensional seismic ray tracing in a spherical earth with discontinuities

We present a 'pseudo-bending' approach to 3-D ray tracing in a spherical earth with discontinuities. This method is based on a three-point perturbation associated with a first-order approximation, while Snell's law in curvilinear coordinates is applied at the discontinuities. We demonstrate the computational accuracy and efficiency of the pseudo-bending method in tracing rays for various velocity models by comparing results with analytical solutions and with results from the bending method. The improvement of efficiency is significant, but is reduced as the number of discontinuities increases. Since the bending approach may be computationally unstable in some situations, even though it is exact, the pseudo-bending approach is preferable for automatic calculation of rays.     

Extended formulation for Rayleigh-wave computations at high frequencies in a spherical layered earth

Summary. The earlier formulation of dispersion function, amplitude response and surface ellipticity for Rayleigh waves in a spherical layered earth has been extended by the reduced-delta matrix to avoid computational instability at high frequencies. We derive a modified formulation, where the layer thickness is kept separated during matrix multiplications. The present formulations are valid for an unlimited frequency range. A numerical experiment with single precision (six decimal digits accuracy) on an IBM 360/44 computer is performed at frequencies from 0.4 to 12.5 Hz on a Shield structure down to a depth of 1090 km below which a complete sphere is assumed. The experiment shows that both reduced-delta matrix and modified formulations generate roots of the dispersion equation without any reduction of layers. However, to avoid unnecessary computation, a layer-reduction procedure has been derived from a modified formulation when the contribution of deep layers becomes insignificant on surface waves.     

Structural analysis and design of frost resistance function for subgrade of high-speed railway ballasted track in cold regions

According to the technical characteristics of short fixed wheelbase of a high-speed carriage, a subgrade-track integrated space mechanical response analysis model is proposed for trains under the action of biaxial load after the comparison of the stress distribution characteristics of the ballast track subgrade bed structures for high-speed railway under the action of uniaxial load and biaxial load. The loading threshold value (high-cycle long-term dynamic strength) under the circumstance where the cumulative deformation of subgrade structure gradually develops and finally reaches the convergent state, and its relationship with the foundation coefficient K₃₀ were deduced, based on the characteristics of cumulative deformation evolution obtained from the unit structure filling model test under the action of cyclic loading. In view of structure stability and frost resistance requirements of the railway subgrade in cold regions, technical conditions to maintain good service performance of subgrade structure of high-speed railway ballasted track are discussed and analyzed. Study results show that the additive effect manifests itself obviously for railway train bogies under the action of biaxial load than uniaxial load, which has a significant dynamic effect on the subgrade bed bottom and a slight effect on the surface layer. Thus, the adoption of a biaxial load model in the design of a high-speed railway subgrade accurately reflects the vehicle load. Pursuant to the structure design principle, the design method of the subgrade structure of high-speed railway ballasted track is proposed to meet the technical requirements such as structural strength, bearing stiffness and high-cyclic and long-term stability. Technical indicators are obtained for the variation of thickness of the surface layer of reinforced subgrade bed in the double-layer subgrade mode along with the change of K₃₀ at the subgrade bed bottom. The double-layer structure mode of "closure on the upper layer and drainage on the lower layer" was proposed in order to meet the waterproofing and drainage requirements of the upper layer of the subgrade bed in cold regions. A dense-framework graded gravel filler with weak water permeability at a coefficient of 10^-4 cm/s is used on the upper layer and the void-framework graded gravel filler at the water permeability coefficient of 10^-2 cm/s is adopted on the lower layer.     

Seismic behavior of tire waste-sand mixtures for transportation infrastructure in cold regions

Tire wastes have many properties that are valuable from a geotechnical engineering perspective, such as low density, high strength, thermal insulation, energy absorption capacity, permeability, durability, compressibility, resilience, and high frictional strength. Thus, tire wastes offer good thermal characteristics in resisting frost penetration and have good drainage characteristics, being as permeable as coarse granular soil for fill materials. The many advantages of tire wastes make the material suitable for transportation infrastructure construction in cold regions. Also, tire wastes with high damping property make them a preferable admixture with sand for transportation infrastructures in seismic regions. This study aimed to determine the seismic performance of certain tire waste-sand mixtures in cold regions. A 70% sand-30% tire crumb mixture by weight(TC30) with a very high damping property was selected for analysis as an engineering material for transportation infrastructure. Small-scale shake-table tests were conducted on this material as well as on a sand-only sample under two different temperatures, 0 °C and 20 °C, to simulate cold-region and moderate-temperature performance, respectively. The 1999 ?zmit Earthquake Excitation(EW)(Mw = 7.4) was taken as the input motion. Test results showed that the tire waste-sand mixture at 0 °C showed better seismic performance than that at room temperature, suggesting that a tire waste-sand mixture in cold regions may reduce seismic hazards to infrastructure.     

Accounting for the solar radiation in thermal regime prediction for railway subgrade in cold regions

This paper presents a comparative analysis of simulation processes of seasonal freezing-thawing of railway subgrade and permafrost degradation, with and without accounting for solar radiation. Also, the effect of sun screens to reduce the degradation of subgrade permafrost under different climatic conditions is numerically substantiated. And finally, the temperature criterion of the origination of permafrost is illustrated.     

第四纪加积型红土与黄土的风成相似性探讨

粒度分析表明,第四纪加积型红土的粒度组成特征与黄土相似,其粒度组成以50 μm以下的粉沙和粘土组分为主,并且10～50 μm的风尘基本组分含量与黄土类似,该类型红土粒度组成存在明显的由北向南粘粒含量增加的空间变化规律;粒度组成的频率曲线研究表明,第四纪加积型红土主要呈现双峰和多峰的特征,表明其搬运营力的多元性,与西风区黄土类似;该类红土的稀土元素丰度以及Sr、Nd同位素组成也与北方风尘沉积相似.因此提出该类红土可称之为加积型红土,它与北方风成沉积存在风成相似性.     

Simulation and analysis of river runoff in typical cold regions

It is generally agreed that global warming is taking place, which has caused runoff generation processes and apparently total runoff amount changes in cold regions of Northwestern China. It is absolutely necessary to quantify and analyze earth surface hydrological processes by numerical models for formulating scientific sustainable development of water resources. Hydrological models became established tools for studying the hydrological cycle, but did not consider frozen soil or glacier hydrology. Thus, they should be improved to satisfy the simulation of hydrological processes in cold regions. In this paper, an energy balance glacier melt model was successfully coupled to the VIC model with frozen soil scheme, thus improving the models performance in a cold catchment area. We performed the improved VIC model to simulate the hydrological processes in the Aksu River Basin, and the simulated results are in good agreement with observed data. Based on modeling hydrological data, the runoff components and their response to climate change were analyzed. The results show: (1) Glacial meltwater recharge accounts for 29.2% of runoff for the Toxkan River, and 58.7% for the Kunma Like River. (2) The annual total runoff of two branches of the Aksu River show increasing trends, increased by about 43.1%, 25.95×10⁶ m³ per year for the Toxkan River and by 13.1%, 14.09×10⁶ m³ per year for the Kunma Like River during the latter 38 years. (3) The annual total runoff of the Toxkan River increased simply due to the increase of non-glacial runoff, while the increase of annual total runoff of the Kunma Like River was the result of increasing glacial (42%) and non-glacial runoff (58%).     

Characteristics of earth hummocks (pounus) with and without permafrost in Finnish Lapland

Finnish Lapland north of 68°30'N latitude is located in the zone of discontinuous permafrost. Two main types of permafrost have previously been found in northern Finland: palsas in the mires and frost in the bedrock on the barren fell summits. The aim of this study was (1) to investigate permafrost occurrence in the peaty earth hummocks (pounus) in several mires, and (2) model characteristics of pounus with and without permafrost.
This study showed that permafrost in Finnish Lapland occurs much more widely and commonly than was previously known. A total of 59% of the studied pounus were found to contain permafrost. Over 90% of the permafrost occurrence in the pounus was correctly classified in logistic regression modelling. The probability of permafrost in a pounu decreased with the height of vegetation, and increased with the pounu height and distance from the running stream. There were clear vegetation differences between pounus with and without permafrost. Unfrozen pounus are characterized by forest and mire species, whereas on the permanently frozen pounus the vegetation is patchier with species indicating drier conditions. Pounus provide an excellent object to study short–term and local variations in permafrost formation due to their small size. They react quickly to variation in temperature, snow depth and precipitation. We conclude that pounus can be classified as sporadic permafrost features in northernmost Europe under modern climatic conditions.