Seasonal Frost Penetration in Pavements with Multiple Layers
This article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYThis article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 2
Abstract
Seasonal freeze-thaw cycles and frost penetration depth in cold regions can be key contributors to pavement damage, and it is important as part of design practice to account for detrimental freeze-thaw conditions in the foundation layers. Empirical and numerical models have been developed to estimate frost penetration beneath pavements. This case study applies the modified Berggren equation as well as three simple empirical models to estimate frost penetration for multiple pavement conditions. Each of the test locations had an array of buried temperature sensors and different pavement structures. The simple empirical equations performed poorly, but the modified Berggren equation had more promising frost penetration depths. Modified Berggren equation calculations were performed with a computer program. The air and ground surface temperatures were monitored to verify influences of the n-factor transferring air to surface freezing index. Different geomaterial properties were used in calculations to explore ways to improve estimation accuracy. Results indicate that pavement type, foundation layer conditions, and local climate affect the computer program’s frost penetration estimates. Including site-specific information improves the accuracy of frost penetration predictions.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Research funding was provided from the FHWA DTFH 61-06-H-00011: WO18Pooled Fund Study TPF-5(183) and the Iowa Highway Research Board (TR-677). The support of these agencies is greatly appreciated.
References
AASHTO. (1993). Guide for design of pavement structures, Washington, DC.
AASHTO. (2008). Mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide: A manual of practice, 2nd Ed., Washington, DC.
Aitken, G. W., and Berg, R. L. (1968). Digital solution of modified Berggren equation to calculate depths of freeze or thaw in multilayered systems, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH.
Aldrich, H., and Paynter, H. (1953). Analytical studies of freezing and thawing of soils, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC.
Andersland, O. B., and Ladanyi, B. (2004). Frozen ground engineering, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Baladi, G., and Rajaei, P. (2015). Predictive modeling of freezing and thawing of frost-susceptible soils, Michigan Dept. of Transportation, East Lansing, MI.
Bianchini, A., and Gonzalez, C. (2012). Pavement-transportation computer assisted structural engineering (PCASE) implementation of the modified Berggren (ModBerg) equation for computing the frost penetration depth within pavement structures, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, MS.
Braley, W., and Connor, B. (1989). Berg2 micro-computer estimation of freeze and thaw depths and thaw consolidation, Alaska Dept. of Transportation and Public Facilities, Fairbanks, AK.
Brown, R. J. E. (1963). “Relation between mean annual air and ground temperatures in the permafrost region of Canada.” Proc., Permafrost Int. Conf., National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.
Cassagrande, A., Taber, S., and Watkins, W. (1931). “Discussion of frost heaving.” Proc., Highway Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC, 165–177.
Chamberlain, E. J. (1986). Evaluation of selected frost-susceptibility test methods, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH, 86–14.
Chisholm, R. A., and Phang, W. A. (1983). “Measurement and prediction of frost penetration in highways.” 62nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Vol. 918, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 1–10.
DeGaetano, A. T., Cameron, M. D., and Wilks, D. S. (2001). “Physical simulation of maximum seasonal soil freezing depth in the united states using routine weather observations.” J. Appl. Meteor., 40(3), 546–555.
DeGaetano, A. T., and Wilks, D. S. (2002). “Extreme-value climatology of maximum soil freezing depths in contiguous United States.” J. Cold Reg. Eng., 51–71.
Flerchinger, G. N., Kustas, W. P., and Weltz, M. A. (1998). “Simulating surface energy fluxes and radiometric surface temperatures for two arid vegetation communities using the SHAW Model.” J. Appl. Meteorol., 37(5), 449–460.
Freitag, D. R., and McFadden, T. (1997). Introduction to cold regions engineering, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Hanson, J. L., Yesiller, N., Swarbrick, G. E., and Liu, W. (2010). “New approach for surface factors.” J. Cold Reg. Eng., 19–34.
Hoover, J. M., Huffman, R. T., and Davidson, D. T. (1962). “Soil stabilization field trials, primary Highway 117, Jasper County, Iowa.” 41st Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board, NAS-NRC, Washington, DC.
Johnson, A. (2012). “Freeze-thaw performance of pavement foundation materials.” M.S. thesis, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA.
Jumikis, A. R. (1955). The frost penetration problem in highway engineering, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Jury, W. A., and Horton, R. 2004. Soil physics, 6th Ed., Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Khoshkhoo, Y., Jansson, P. E., Irannejad, P., Khalili, A., and Rahimi, H. (2015). “Calibration of an energy balance model to simulate wintertime soil temperature, soil frost depth, and snow depth for a 14 year period in a highland area of Iran.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 119(9), 47–60.
McKeown, S., Clark, J. I., and Matheson, D. (1988). “Frost penetration and thermal regime in dry gravel.” J. Cold Reg. Eng., 111–123.
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). (1957). Frost penetration in multilayer soil profiles, Cambridge, MA.
Nixon, J. F., and McRoberts, E. C. (1973). “A study of some factors affecting the thawing of frozen soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 10(3), 439–452.
Orakoglu, M., Liu, J., and Tutumluer, E. (2016). “Frost depth prediction for seasonal freezing area in eastern Turkey.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 124(4), 118–126.
PCASE version 2.09 [Computer software]. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, MS.
Rajaei, P., and Baladi, G. Y. (2015). “Frost depth—A general prediction model.” 94th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC.
RWIS (Road Weather Information System). (2016). “Iowa state environmental Mesonet, RWIS soil probe download.” ⟨http://www.rwisonline.com/scanweb/swlogin.asp⟩ (Dec. 11, 2016).
Stefan, J. (1890). “Ueber die verdampfung und die auflösung als vorgänge der diffusion.” Annalen der Physik, 277(12), 725–747 (in German).
USDA and USDAF (U.S. Department of the Army and the U.S. Department of the Air Force). (1988). Arctic and subarctic construction calculation methods for determination of depths of freeze and thaw in soils, Dept. of the Army and the Air Force, Washington, DC.
Yoder, E. J., and Witczak, M. W. (1975). Principles of pavement design, 2nd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Zarling, J. P., Braley, W. A., and Pelz, C. (1989). “The modified Berggren method—A review.” Proc., Fifth Int. Conf., Cold Regions Engineering, ASCE, New York, 267–273.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 32 • Issue 2 • June 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 31, 2017
Accepted: Sep 29, 2017
Published online: Jan 26, 2018
Published in print: Jun 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jun 26, 2018
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.