Soil Bridging Effects within Permafrost-Supported Embankment Infrastructure
Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 1
Abstract
Accidents, infrastructure closures and reductions in capacity, and delays have occurred and are documented in the literature due to bridge formation, sinkholes, or rapid collapses within embankment infrastructure on permafrost. However, the failure mechanics are not well understood or studied. This paper investigates soil particle position, negative pore-pressure generation, and frozen soil flexure as possible mechanisms for bridging. Published literature and laboratory testing confirmed that soil particle position is a possible mechanism for bridging voids within embankments. Factor of safety equations were developed for (1) tensile stress conditions within a loaded frozen soil beam and (2) tensile stress from matric suction conditions within unfrozen soils over a void. Using published data for common embankment materials, example calculations for bridging via matric suction and frozen soil flexure are presented. All of the presented mechanisms for creating and maintaining bridges are possible, depending on site conditions; however, the probability and consequences of bridge collapse after formation vary widely depending on the mechanism.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the work of Marielle Fauteux and Christina Ponniah for their assistance on the laboratory testing, Professor Serge Leroueil for his insightful discussions on unsaturated soil mechanics, Chantal Lemieux for her valuable initial editing, and the journal's reviewers.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- B
- width along the void;
- H
- total beam thickness;
- h
- distance from the edge to the neutral axis of the beam;
- hc
- beam thickness in compression;
- ht
- beam thickness in tension;
- L
- beam length;
- M
- beam moment;
- n
- soil water characteristic curve parameter;
- nc
- creep parameter in compression;
- nt
- creep parameter in tension;
- P
- applied point load;
- S
- soil saturation, beam section modulus;
- Se
- effective soil saturation;
- Sr
- residual saturation of the soil;
- X
- thickness of soil above the frozen beam;
- α
- soil water characteristic curve parameter;
- γ
- unit weight of soil;
- ϕt
- internal friction angle at low normal stress;
- σft
- ultimate tensile stress of the frozen soil;
- σt
- uniaxial tensile strength; and
- beam tensile stress.
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Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 1 • March 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 25, 2017
Accepted: Jul 6, 2020
Published online: Oct 23, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Mar 23, 2021
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