Roadbed Settlement Research Articles

Permafrost warming under the earthen roadbed of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway

This paper investigates the stability of the earthen roadbed built in the warm and ice-rich permafrost region. The varying thermal regime of the subgrade and the ongoing settlement of the roadbed were observed at field. The temperature data demonstrate that in warm and ice-rich permafrost regions, adoption of earthen roadbed results in warming of the underlying permafrost. It is primarily because the earthen roadbed traps the warm-season absorbed heat in the natural ground. In addition, the carried heat of the earthen roadbed that was constructed in warm season propagates downward to warm the underlying soil. The warming permafrost layer promotes the roadbed settlement, which was mostly linearly developed in the past five service years. A comprehensive analysis for the varying thermal regime and the ongoing settlement shows that the unfrozen water liberated from the warming, undrained layer experiences consolidation. The deformation of the undrained soils is mainly responsible for settlement of the roadbed. In comparison, the temperature variation of this warming permafrost layer is found to be less beneath roadbeds protected by thermosyphons or crushed rock revetments. The installation of thermosyphons into the earthen roadbed is recommended to prevent the further degradation of the underlying permafrost.

Settlement Monitoring of Passenger Railway Tianjin to Qinhuangdao

Settlement monitoring in the process of roadbed construction is one of the key technologies in the quality of passenger railway roadbed construction. By the specific circumstances of the roadbed project of passenger railway Tianjin to Qinhuangdao, outlines the meaning and content of the purpose of roadbed settlement monitoring, and describes the characteristics of a variety of settlement monitoring, function and layout of facilities in implementation, the requirements of technology, etc. Investigate and analyze the settlement monitoring information management based on construction control.

Characteristics of roadbed settlement in embankment–bridge transition section along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in permafrost regions

Abstract The Qinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) project was finished on July 1, 2006, and has served for over 3 years. Judging from the present situation, the roadbed is stable and train speed in permafrost regions achieves 100 km/h as expected during the designing. However, as half part of the roadbed was constructed over the permafrost characterized by high ground temperature and high ice content, slight changes of the permafrost might lead to roadbed problems, of which the settlement in embankment–bridge transition section is an obvious and special one. Investigated results of 164 bridges and accounting to 656 positions from the Xidatan Basin to the Chiqu Valley along the QTR in 2009 showed that the settlement was influenced by factors including bridge orientation, embankment slope direction, embankment height, ground temperature, ground ice content of permafrost and local subgrade soil type. For the average value of the settlement, it was greater at the northern end of a bridge than that at the southern end, and was greater in sunny-slope than that in shady-slope. It was greater in high ice permafrost regions than that in low ice regions, and was greater in high-temperature permafrost regions than that in low-temperature regions. Additionally, it increased logarithmically with the height of the embankment. In regions where the subgrade soils were dominated by silt, silty clay or fine sand, the settlement amount was higher than that in bedrock regions. Correlation analysis results showed that there were good relationships between the settlement and the slope direction, embankment height, ground temperature and ice contents when some of the later items were quantified. The correlation coefficients were 0.234, 0.213, −0.21 and 0.151 respectively, when the factors were quantified.