Regional Conference on Permafrost 2021 and the 19th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering
Embankment Fill Slope Movement on Thaw Sensitive Permafrost: Combining Creep Testing and Thermal Simulations to Develop Mitigation Options at Lost Creek along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System; Lost Creek—Part 2
Publication: Permafrost 2021: Merging Permafrost Science and Cold Regions Engineering
ABSTRACT
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was constructed in the 1970s to transport warm oil through a 48-inch-diameter pipeline (mainline) 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska. The system traverses continuous and discontinuous permafrost terrain and is supported aboveground or buried, depending on subsurface conditions. The Lost Creek site is a northwest-facing cut and fill slope in discontinuous, warm permafrost. The mainline is supported aboveground by vertical support members (VSMs). Since 1990, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company has observed signs of ground and VSM movement. Movement mechanisms at the site include longitudinal creep movement along a shear zone in ice-rich permafrost and transverse shoulder rotation due to thaw settlement. The movement causes lateral pile loading, VSM displacement, and embankment shoulder failure. This paper presents the methods we used to develop options to mitigate slope movement at the site. We present our interpretation of site conditions in a separate paper within these proceedings.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Dr. John Zarling of Zarling Aero and Engineering for his input and guidance on our thermal simulations and Dr. Margaret Darrow and Dr. Matthew Bray of UAF for providing creep test results for our modeling and this paper and for their assistance interpreting the transient creep test results.
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Published In
Permafrost 2021: Merging Permafrost Science and Cold Regions Engineering
Pages: 360 - 373
Editor: Jon Zufelt, Ph.D., HDR Alaska
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8358-9
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Oct 21, 2021
Published in print: Oct 21, 2021
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