Structural stability of highway embankments in the Arctic corridor
There are uncertainties related to the mechanical behaviour of highway embankments where frozen soil is used as fill material and experience natural thawing and settlements during the first thawing season following construction. Side slope sloughing, fill cracking, and development of localized thaw...
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ftunivmanitoba:oai:mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca:1993/35094 2023-06-18T03:39:23+02:00 Structural stability of highway embankments in the Arctic corridor De Guzman, Earl Marvin Alfaro, Marolo (Civil Engineering) Doré, Guy (Civil Engineering) Arenson, Lukas (Civil Engineering) Dick, Kris (Biosystems Engineering) Hayley, Joceyln (University of Calgary) 2020-09-23T21:28:07Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1993/35094 eng eng http://hdl.handle.net/1993/35094 open access Highway embankments Winter construction Permafrost Frozen fill compaction Reinforced slopes Wicking geotextiles Interface resistance Shear strength Large-scale direct shear test Pullout test Numerical modelling Climate change doctoral thesis 2020 ftunivmanitoba 2023-06-04T17:36:38Z There are uncertainties related to the mechanical behaviour of highway embankments where frozen soil is used as fill material and experience natural thawing and settlements during the first thawing season following construction. Side slope sloughing, fill cracking, and development of localized thaw settlements underneath the embankment shoulders and side slopes typically occur due to thawing of the frozen soil and permafrost foundation. Test sections were constructed and instrumented with temperature and displacement sensors along the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway in the Northwest Territories, Canada to assess the thermal and mechanical performance of frozen fill embankments. One of the test sections was reinforced with layers of wicking woven geotextiles at its side slopes to provide reinforcement against lateral movements and instabilities during the thawing season. This is the first research where woven geotextiles were used for slope reinforcement of initially frozen fill in Arctic regions. Significant lateral displacements occurred in the summer following end-of-construction for the control (unreinforced) and reinforced test sections, with the reinforced section showing reduced lateral movements. Temperatures in the embankment and permafrost foundation have also been increasing due to warming air temperatures, leading to additional displacements as the previously compacted frozen fill thaws. Large-scale direct shear and pullout tests were conducted on the soil and woven geotextiles, respectively, under different moisture contents and environmental conditions to quantify their influence on embankment performance. The most critical condition, based on the tests conducted, occurs during the onset of the first thawing when the ice bonding in the soil matrix melts. The interface properties obtained from the pullout tests showed that the wicking geotextile has higher interface friction properties compared to a non-wicking geotextile at comparable strain levels. Thermal modelling and coupled thermal-mechanical ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Arctic Climate change Ice Inuvik Northwest Territories permafrost Tuktoyaktuk MSpace at the University of Manitoba Arctic Northwest Territories Canada Tuktoyaktuk ENVELOPE(-133.006,-133.006,69.425,69.425) Inuvik ENVELOPE(-133.610,-133.610,68.341,68.341) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MSpace at the University of Manitoba |
op_collection_id |
ftunivmanitoba |
language |
English |
topic |
Highway embankments Winter construction Permafrost Frozen fill compaction Reinforced slopes Wicking geotextiles Interface resistance Shear strength Large-scale direct shear test Pullout test Numerical modelling Climate change |
spellingShingle |
Highway embankments Winter construction Permafrost Frozen fill compaction Reinforced slopes Wicking geotextiles Interface resistance Shear strength Large-scale direct shear test Pullout test Numerical modelling Climate change De Guzman, Earl Marvin Structural stability of highway embankments in the Arctic corridor |
topic_facet |
Highway embankments Winter construction Permafrost Frozen fill compaction Reinforced slopes Wicking geotextiles Interface resistance Shear strength Large-scale direct shear test Pullout test Numerical modelling Climate change |
description |
There are uncertainties related to the mechanical behaviour of highway embankments where frozen soil is used as fill material and experience natural thawing and settlements during the first thawing season following construction. Side slope sloughing, fill cracking, and development of localized thaw settlements underneath the embankment shoulders and side slopes typically occur due to thawing of the frozen soil and permafrost foundation. Test sections were constructed and instrumented with temperature and displacement sensors along the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway in the Northwest Territories, Canada to assess the thermal and mechanical performance of frozen fill embankments. One of the test sections was reinforced with layers of wicking woven geotextiles at its side slopes to provide reinforcement against lateral movements and instabilities during the thawing season. This is the first research where woven geotextiles were used for slope reinforcement of initially frozen fill in Arctic regions. Significant lateral displacements occurred in the summer following end-of-construction for the control (unreinforced) and reinforced test sections, with the reinforced section showing reduced lateral movements. Temperatures in the embankment and permafrost foundation have also been increasing due to warming air temperatures, leading to additional displacements as the previously compacted frozen fill thaws. Large-scale direct shear and pullout tests were conducted on the soil and woven geotextiles, respectively, under different moisture contents and environmental conditions to quantify their influence on embankment performance. The most critical condition, based on the tests conducted, occurs during the onset of the first thawing when the ice bonding in the soil matrix melts. The interface properties obtained from the pullout tests showed that the wicking geotextile has higher interface friction properties compared to a non-wicking geotextile at comparable strain levels. Thermal modelling and coupled thermal-mechanical ... |
author2 |
Alfaro, Marolo (Civil Engineering) Doré, Guy (Civil Engineering) Arenson, Lukas (Civil Engineering) Dick, Kris (Biosystems Engineering) Hayley, Joceyln (University of Calgary) |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
De Guzman, Earl Marvin |
author_facet |
De Guzman, Earl Marvin |
author_sort |
De Guzman, Earl Marvin |
title |
Structural stability of highway embankments in the Arctic corridor |
title_short |
Structural stability of highway embankments in the Arctic corridor |
title_full |
Structural stability of highway embankments in the Arctic corridor |
title_fullStr |
Structural stability of highway embankments in the Arctic corridor |
title_full_unstemmed |
Structural stability of highway embankments in the Arctic corridor |
title_sort |
structural stability of highway embankments in the arctic corridor |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1993/35094 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-133.006,-133.006,69.425,69.425) ENVELOPE(-133.610,-133.610,68.341,68.341) |
geographic |
Arctic Northwest Territories Canada Tuktoyaktuk Inuvik |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Northwest Territories Canada Tuktoyaktuk Inuvik |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Ice Inuvik Northwest Territories permafrost Tuktoyaktuk |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Ice Inuvik Northwest Territories permafrost Tuktoyaktuk |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1993/35094 |
op_rights |
open access |
_version_ |
1769004142639972352 |