Determination method of permafrost table in seasonal frozen soil areas under“Water-Heat-Salt”coupling

The permafrost table is an important index for the design and construction of roads in cold regions,so it is necessary to find a convenient,accurate and fast judgment method to determine the permafrost table.In this study,a three-field coupled model was established based on the hydrothermal salt coupling within the permafrost and the similarity theory,and the changes of the permafrost table under different temperature,moisture and salt conditions were numerically simulated by considering the transient temperature change and the influence of the permafrost layer on the seasonally thawed layer.In addition,an accelerated permafrost table test method was designed based on the time-domain variation and hydrothermal salt coupling by the similarity theory,which rapidly simulated the permafrost table change under different temperatures,moisture,and salts in the natural environment.Comparing the simulation and test results with the measured values in the field,the errors are less than 3%,which verified the feasibility of the method for determining the permafrost table,and the simulated results are better than the test results.Results show that the results of determining the permafrost table with a single index have different degrees of deviation,and the permafrost table obtained by the temperature index is the most accurate in general,and it is more accurate to use the average value of the three indexes as the permafrost table compared with a single index.

Numerical analysis for permafrost temperature field in the short term of permafrost subgrade filling

Purpose-It is of great significance to study the influence of subgrade filling on permafrost temperature field in permafrost area for the smooth construction and safe operation of railway.Design/methodology/approach-The paper builds up the model for the hydrothermal coupling calculation of permafrost using finite element software COMSOL to study how permafrost temperature field changes in the short term after subgrade filling,on which basis it proposes the method of calculation for the concave distortion of freezing front in the subgrade-covered area.Findings-The results show that the freezing front below the subgrade center sinks due to the thermal effect of subgrade filling,which will trigger hydrothermal erosion in case of sufficient moisture inflows,leading to the thawing settlement or the cracking of the subgrade,etc.The heat output of soil will be hindered the most in case of July filling,in which case the sinking and the distortion of the freezing front is found to be the most severe,which the recovery of the permafrost temperature field,the slowest,constituting the most unfavorable working condition.The concave distortion of the freezing front in the subgrade area increases with the increase in temperature difference between the filler and ground surface,the subgrade height,the subgrade width and the volumetric thermal capacity of filler,while decreases with the increase of the thermal conductivity of filler.Therefore,the filler chose for engineering project shall be of small volumetric thermal capacity,low initial temperature and high thermal conductivity whenever possible.Originality/value-The concave distortion of the freezing front under different working conditions at different times after filling can be calculated using the method proposed.