Bank erosion under the impacts of fluvial erosion, frost heaving/freeze-thaw process of rivers in seasonal frozen regions

Abstract

Bank erosion is a key feature of channel evolution in alluvial rivers, and will occur under the combined effect of hydraulic erosion and frost heave/freeze-thaw process of rivers in seasonal frozen regions. However, most research on bank erosion modeling has seldom considered the impact of the frost heave/freeze-thaw process. Therefore, the variation in the mechanical characteristics of riverbank soil under the freeze-thaw cycle was investigated firstly in the current research and then used in the modeling of bank erosion processes at typical sections of the Songhua River. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis of riverbank stability was conducted using orthogonal experiments. The results indicate that after 7 freeze-thaw cycles, the soil cohesion and internal friction angle of bank soil decreased by about 10%–47 % and 9%–19 %, respectively. Unlike lowland rivers, bank erosion of rivers in seasonal frozen regions is more likely to occur during the rising water period. The frost heaving/freeze-thaw process will make the bank stability safety coefficient Fs more quickly decrease to the unstable critical value. As compared with the case without considering the frost heaving/freeze-thaw process, the mass failure occurred in advance when the frost heaving/freeze-thaw process was considered, and the calculated bank erosion volume was increased by 11%–51 %, agreeing better with the measured value. The sensitivity ranking of the four influencing factors on riverbank stability under freezing-thawing conditions is as follows: river stage > groundwater level > cohesion > internal friction angle. The current study can provide a reference for research on bank erosion and channel evolution of rivers in seasonal frozen regions.