Experimental Investigation of Thermal and Hydraulic Properties of Ice-Rich Saline Permafrost in Northern Alaska
Publication: Cold Regions Engineering 2024: Sustainable and Resilient Engineering Solutions for Changing Cold Regions
ABSTRACT
Unfrozen water content and thermal properties are factors in understanding permafrost degradation processes, yet there is a general lack of information on the hydro-thermal properties of relatively undisturbed ice-rich permafrost in Arctic coastal regions. In this research, we measured the unfrozen water content as a function of temperature in samples from near-surface undisturbed ice-rich permafrost using a pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (P-NMR) testing system, in a temperature-controlled environment. We measured frozen and unfrozen thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the permafrost samples. The average frozen and unfrozen thermal conductivities are 2.23 and 1.30 W/m · K, respectively, and the average frozen and unfrozen heat capacities are 1.91 and 3.00 MJ/m3/K, respectively. To investigate the effect of salinity on unfrozen water content of permafrost, we measured the samples’ salinity levels. The salinity levels of the permafrost samples varied, ranging from 0.5 to 15.2 parts per thousand. Based on these data, we established an empirical relationship between salinity and unfrozen water content for ice-rich organic silty permafrost that can be used for engineering purposes.
Get full access to this chapter
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Andersland, O.B. and Ladanyi, B., 2003. Frozen ground engineering. John Wiley & Sons.
Anderson, D.M. and Tice, A.R., 1973. The unfrozen interfacial phase in frozen soil water systems. In Physical aspects of soil water and salts in ecosystems (pp. 107-124). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Biskaborn, B.K., Smith, S.L., Noetzli, J., Matthes, H., Vieira, G., Streletskiy, D.A., Schoeneich, P., Romanovsky, V.E., Lewkowicz, A.G., Abramov, A. and Allard, M., 2019. Permafrost is warming at a global scale. Nature communications, 10(1), p.264.
Bray, M.T., 2013. Secondary creep approximations of ice-rich soils and ice using transient relaxation tests. Cold regions science and technology, 88, pp.17-36.
Brouchkov, A., 2002. Nature and distribution of frozen saline sediments on the Russian Arctic coast. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 13(2), pp.83-90.
Dou, S., Nakagawa, S., Dreger, D. and Ajo-Franklin, J., 2016. A rock-physics investigation of unconsolidated saline permafrost: P-wave properties from laboratory ultrasonic measurements. Geophysics, 81(1), pp. WA233-WA245.
Hjort, J., Karjalainen, O., Aalto, J., Westermann, S., Romanovsky, V.E., Nelson, F.E., Etzelmüller, B. and Luoto, M., 2018. Degrading permafrost puts Arctic infrastructure at risk by mid-century. Nature communications, 9(1), p.5147.
ISO, 1994. Soil Quality. Determination of the Specific Electrical Conductivity.
Kruse, A.M., Darrow, M.M. and Akagawa, S., 2018. Improvements in measuring unfrozen water in frozen soils using the pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance method. Journal of Cold Regions Engineering, 32(1), p.04017016.
Melvin, A.M., Larsen, P., Boehlert, B., Neumann, J.E., Chinowsky, P., Espinet, X., Martinich, J., Baumann, M.S., Rennels, L., Bothner, A. and Nicolsky, D.J., 2017. Climate change damages to Alaska public infrastructure and the economics of proactive adaptation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(2), pp. E122-E131.
Osterkamp, T.E., 1989. Occurrence and potential importance of saline permafrost in Alaska: Workshop on Saline Permafrost. University of Manitoba.
Rantanen, M., Karpechko, A.Y., Lipponen, A., Nordling, K., Hyvärinen, O., Ruosteenoja, K., Vihma, T. and Laaksonen, A., 2022. The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979. Communications Earth & Environment, 3(1), p.168.
Wang, Z., Xiao, M., Liew, M., Jensen, A., Farquharson, L., Romanovsky, V., Nicolsky, D., McComb, C., Jones, B.M., Zhang, X. and Alessa, L., 2023a. Arctic geohazard mapping tools for civil infrastructure planning: a systematic review. Cold Regions Science and Technology, p.103969.
Wang, Z., Xiao, M., Nicolsky, D., Romanovsky, V., McComb, C. and Farquharson, L., 2023b. Arctic coastal hazard assessment considering permafrost thaw subsidence, coastal erosion, and flooding. Environmental Research Letters, 18(10), p.104003.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Published online: May 9, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Chemical degradation
- Chemical processes
- Chemistry
- Cold regions engineering
- Engineering mechanics
- Environmental engineering
- Frost
- Hydraulic engineering
- Hydraulic properties
- Hydrologic engineering
- Hydrologic properties
- Hydrology
- Ice
- Permafrost
- Salt water
- Thermal properties
- Thermodynamics
- Water (by type)
- Water and water resources
- Water content
- Water management
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.