Quantitative settlement hazard assessment for a permafrost embankment based on distributed optical fiber monitoring

Abstract

Quantitative assessment of the highway settlement hazard in permafrost regions is urgently needed for maintaining the performance of highway service. This study firstly conducted a field monitoring of an embankment located in the permafrost region by performing the distributed fiber optic monitoring. Subsequently, a novel indicator named embankment disease indicator(EDI ε) was developed based on strain gradient calculated through the monitoring results to build a permafrost embankment settlement hazard quantitative assessment framework. The results indicate that, (1) the distributed fiber optic monitoring can reflect the uneven settlement distribution of permafrost embankment over a wide range and long distance; (2) 0.152% is suggested as the strain gradient criterion to calculate EDI ε, EDI ε can quantitatively indicate differential settlement disease rate in permafrost embankment; (3) the model implementation results have a dynamic quantity consistent with the actual situation, the assessment framework is particularly useful for large regional uneven settlement assessment of permafrost embankment.