Case Study of the Thermal Regime of Permafrost underneath the Airstrips near Hudson Bay Coast, Canada
Publication: Cold Regions Engineering 2024: Sustainable and Resilient Engineering Solutions for Changing Cold Regions
ABSTRACT
Transportation infrastructure is of vital importance to the local communities in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. Permafrost degradation results in infrastructure failures and affects social and economic development. The case study of airstrip embankment at Salluit was selected to help improve the understanding of ground thermal conditions in Nunavik. This paper presents the analysis of thermal data collected at the Salluit airstrip and one two-dimensional geothermal model developed to reproduce the subsurface thermal regime under the centerline of airstrip embankment. The measured embankment dimension and air temperature were used as the inputs to improve the model accuracy. Field measurement of ground temperatures for a two-year monitoring period from 2016 to 2018 was used to calibrate the model developed. This study provided valuable information to investigate the vulnerability of the airstrips using the simulation approach in response to climate warming effects in Nunavik.
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REFERENCES
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Published In
Cold Regions Engineering 2024: Sustainable and Resilient Engineering Solutions for Changing Cold Regions
Pages: 251 - 261
History
Published online: May 9, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Case studies
- Cold regions engineering
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering mechanics
- Frost
- Infrastructure
- Measurement (by type)
- Methodology (by type)
- Model accuracy
- Models (by type)
- Permafrost
- Research methods (by type)
- Temperature measurement
- Thermal analysis
- Thermodynamics
- Two-dimensional analysis
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