Technical Papers
Jan 3, 2018

Embankment Stability of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway in Permafrost Regions

Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 1

Abstract

It has been 10 years since the Qinghai–Tibet Railway (QTR), constructed from 2001 to 2005, was opened to traffic in 2006. Experts from around the world, in the field of cold regions, have been paying close attention to embankment stability in permafrost regions of the QTR. Using ground temperature and embankment deformation data obtained by a long-term monitoring system along the QTR in permafrost regions during the years 2006–2012, the thermal and deformation stability of the embankments are analyzed based on variation of the artificial permafrost table (APT) and the magnitude of settlement, respectively. The results indicate that both the mean annual ground temperature (MAGT) and the types of adopted engineering measures primarily determine the variation of the APT and also dominate the settlement of the embankment. In regard to embankment deformation, most of the embankments of the QTR in the permafrost regions are in a stable state.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41571064, 41630636, and 41471061) and the Independent Research of the State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (SKLFSE-ZT-09). The authors thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscript.

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Go to Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 32Issue 1March 2018

History

Received: Apr 1, 2016
Accepted: Aug 31, 2017
Published online: Jan 3, 2018
Published in print: Mar 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jun 3, 2018

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Authors

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Zhizhong Sun [email protected]
Associate Professor, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Gansu 730000, China (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]
Wei Ma
Professor, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Gansu 730000, China.
Shujuan Zhang
Professor, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Gansu 730000, China.
Zhi Wen
Professor, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Gansu 730000, China.
Guilong Wu
Engineer, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Gansu 730000, China.

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