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Numerical analysis of frost heave and thawing settlement of the pile–soil system in degraded permafrost region

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Abstract

Climate change in permafrost regions has caused frost heave and thawing settlement of soil around piles, inducing bridge engineering damage. Herein, the solid-to-liquid ratio is used as a hydrothermal coupling term and the frost heave ratio is introduced to establish a pile–soil system frost heave and thawing settlement model. An indoor physical model test is used to confirm the calculation model’s correctness. Based on the investigation data of the No. 16 pile of the Chalabing Bridge on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, studies on soil temperature and moisture fields as well as frost heave and thawing settlement of the pile–soil system were conducted through the secondary development of partial differential equation (PDE) module in the COMSOL software package. Results show that the permafrost table will degrade from − 3.2 to − 4.9 m with an atmospheric temperature increase of 2.6 °C in the next 50 years. The migration of water to the pile side will increase. Moreover, the thawing settlement amount on the pile side will gradually increase with increasing atmospheric temperature, and the maximum thawing settlement amounts on the pile side in years 1, 10, 30, and 50 will be 4.95, 7.63, 11.58, and 13.66 mm, respectively. Similarly, the frost heave amount will gradually decrease with increasing atmospheric temperature, and the frost heave amounts on the pile side for years 1, 10, 30, and 50 will be 6.66, 5.51, 3.99, and 3.69 mm, respectively. For the stability of pile foundation engineering in permafrost regions in the future, the prevention and control of thawing settlement should be focused.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41502298) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42071100).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Liyun Tang, Gengshe Yang, Xiang Ren & Zhen Li

  2. School of Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Liujun Yang

  3. JZFZ Architectural Design Xi’an Branch, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Xiaogang Wang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Guoyu Li

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  1. Liyun Tang
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Correspondence to Liujun Yang.

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Tang, L., Yang, L., Wang, X. et al. Numerical analysis of frost heave and thawing settlement of the pile–soil system in degraded permafrost region. Environ Earth Sci 80, 693 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09999-4

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