Cooling Effect of Crushed Rock-Based Embankment along the Chaidaer-Muli Railway

Ji Chen,Lei Liu,Yu Sheng,Bo Zhang,Yaling Chou

doi:10.1155/2015/182437

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of the cooling effect of crushed rock-based embankment on slope wetlands along the Chaidaer-Muli Railway. The result shows that only the embankment shady side can be effectively cooled down in a warm permafrost region and the crushed rock-based embankment can cool the entire embankment in a cold permafrost region. The crushed rock-based embankment cannot eliminate the problems from the south-north slope. Slope wetland can influence the temperature field of the crushed rock-based embankment. On the uphill side, it will lead to degradation in some cases and development of permafrost in other cases, which depends on the topsoil water content and ground surface runoff. On the downhill side, it always leads to the warming of permafrost. For crushed rock-based embankment constructed on slope wetlands, it is necessary to adopt other stronger measures to eliminate the sunny-shady slope problems.

Highlights

The crushed rock-based embankment can provide active protection for permafrost and has been widely used in the construction of railways in permafrost regions
The results showed that the crushed rock-based embankment can provide a good cooling effect to the permafrost
It is worth discussing the applicability of the crushed rock-based embankment under different permafrost conditions including the Mean annual ground temperature (MAGT) and ice content

Summary

Introduction

The crushed rock-based embankment can provide active protection for permafrost and has been widely used in the construction of railways in permafrost regions. The results showed that the crushed rock-based embankment can provide a good cooling effect to the permafrost. Wu et al [14] showed that there is better thermal stability when the temperature near the permafrost table under the crushed rock-based embankment decreases greatly in cold permafrost regions. In warm permafrost regions, thermal balance of permafrost will be disturbed, and it is disadvantageous to the stability of frozen soil embankment It is worth discussing the applicability of the crushed rock-based embankment under different permafrost conditions including the MAGT and ice content. The engineering effect of the crushed rock-based embankment becomes more complex in the CMR

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussions

Conclusions