Effect of Frost Heaving on the Failure of Deep Structures

Abstract

frost. At the outset of the 1950s, a small single-story commercial brick building was constructed in th e northern suburbs of Moscow. This building was in normal service until the beginning of the 1990s. It wa s then preserved. In 1997, a 24-m long and 7-m wide area, which was oriented from east to west with respec t to length, was graded in front of the facade. The area abuts a 6-m-wide highway carrying rather heavy traffic . A shallow sand-gravel cover layer was placed on the surface of the site. Snow was carefully removed from the area from the outset of the winter of 1997-1998, and stored o n its western side. In mid-December 1998, a water line running parallel to the highway failed beneath the site . This suggests that deep freezing of the soils in the roadway bed is frequently responsible for the failure o f water-supply lines near these roads. A cast-iron water-supply pipe 250 mm in diameter was placed at a depth of 2.5 m in morainic claye y loams. The water table is located at a depth of 18 m. Rupture of the pipe occurred at a distance of 5 m to th e east of the snow pile. As in the previous year, snow was removed from the site from the outset of the winter of 1998-1999 , and in March 1999, a second failure of the pipeline was observed at a distance 6 m to the east of the prev i ous year’s failure. A third failure of the water line beneath this site was observed at the beginning of Febr u ary 2000. Nonuniform heaving of cohesive soils, which results in the failure of highway pavement, is one of th e most dangerous forms of deformations of an earth roadbed in regions with seasonal frost and unfavorable we t ting conditions . The number of these emergency situations has recently increased considerably in the towns and vi l