Abstract

The construction of roadway embankments may destabilize the thermal stability of roadbeds in permafrost regions. One mitigating strategy is to face the embankment side slopes with a crushed-rock layer, which promotes convective cooling and cools the underlying permafrost. While research on the convective cooling of the crushed-rock layer is fairly plentiful, the solar absorption of this layer remains unknown in the current stage. Measuring the albedo of a crushed-rock layer is crucial to estimate the thermal performance of the roadway embankment. This study proposes the theory and procedure for measuring the albedo of crushed-rock layers. The albedo of crushed-rock layers with different sizes of aggregate is measured in sunny and cloudy weather. It was found that the albedo of crushed-rock layers decreases with the increase of the aggregate size. The reason for this correlation is that at a rough surface, some photons leaving the surface return to it, increasing its absorption. Incorporating light-colored aggregates on a highway surface or side slope layer may raise the highway albedo and cool the underlying permafrost.

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