Cold Regions Science and Technology最新文献

{"title":"Experimental and numerical investigation of impact force characteristics on track slabs subjected to high-speed ice impacts","authors":"Xuanran Fu ,&nbsp;Xiaolin Song ,&nbsp;Yue Liu ,&nbsp;Dingjun Xiao","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104659","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104659","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The impact effect caused by ice blocks detaching from high-speed trains will impair track performance. As the accurate impact force is not only a critical evaluation indicator for the impact damage on track slabs, but also a key input parameter to investigate the damage evolution mechanisms, the impact force characteristics is a primary issue to be addressed. Herein, the ice impact behavior and the influence of ice size, head shape, and impact velocity on force characteristics were investigated through a combination of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. The impact force was directly measured by the force transducer during impact event, and the impacting fragmentation process of ice block was recorded by the high-speed camera. The numerical models developed by Ls-Dyna were validated through correlation with experimental data, and the relationship between experimental data and calculated results was analyzed. The findings reveal that peak impact forces across all test conditions exhibit an approximately linear growth trend with increasing impact velocity. Larger initial contact areas result in higher peak forces, shorter rise time, and greater impulse magnitudes compared to smaller ones, while the mass of the ice blocks has minimal impact on peak force and rise time. In addition, it is observed that the total impulse of ice blocks, regardless of their head shape or mass, exhibits a linear increase with rising kinetic energy. Additionally, initial fragmentation characteristics were highly dependent on the ice block shape: cylindrical blocks exhibited global fragmentation, while conical blocks demonstrated localized fragmentation. These insights, derived from the numerical and experimental analyses, were used to predict ice impact damage to the track slab, thereby laying the foundation for further research on the characterization and classification of impact damage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"241 ","pages":"Article 104659"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144926578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Study on the damage mechanism of subgrade in seasonal frozen soil region under dynamic loading","authors":"Jinbang Zhai ,&nbsp;Doudou Jin ,&nbsp;Kun Zhang ,&nbsp;Linzhen Yang ,&nbsp;Chunlei Xie ,&nbsp;Ze Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104661","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104661","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Highway subgrade constructed in seasonal frozen soil region of Northeast China is subject to damage under dynamic loading of vehicles and alternating seasonal temperatures. In order to investigate the damage mechanism of the subgrade in the seasonal frozen soil region, indoor tests were conducted. It was found that the dynamic load has a large effect on the temperature field, moisture distribution, and pore water pressure distribution of the subgrade. Under the repeated cycles of dynamic loading, a region of high pore water pressure and high pore water pressure gradient was formed below the load. In addition, a region of high temperature gradient was formed at the same location under the influence of cyclic temperature changes. The combined effect of the temperature gradient and the pore water pressure gradient redistributes water in the soil, resulting in moisture gathering below the load and an increase in soil moisture content, leading to an increase in frost heave during freezing. During the thawing period, the thawing of permafrost reduces its strength, and the gathering of moisture under the load caused by dynamic loading will become an inducing factor for the damage of the subgrade. This study provides a novel explanation for the damage of subgrade in seasonal frozen soil regions during the spring thaw period. It also suggests strengthening the base layer during subgrade construction to reduce the impact of traffic loads on the subgrade during the spring thaw period.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"240 ","pages":"Article 104661"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144913745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-term performance and optimization of two-phase closed thermosyphons for buried large-scale warm-oil pipelines under rising oil temperature","authors":"Wenyuan Lei ,&nbsp;Yapeng Cao ,&nbsp;Guoyu Li ,&nbsp;Dong Li ,&nbsp;Yujun Cui ,&nbsp;Shaoqun Lin ,&nbsp;Yan Zhang ,&nbsp;Anshuang Su ,&nbsp;Miao Wang ,&nbsp;Xu Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104651","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104651","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The China–Russia crude oil pipeline (CRCOP) serves as a critical energy supply route for both countries. The pipeline during its operation inevitably dissipates heat to the surrounding permafrost, leading to thaw settlement issues. A full-scale monitoring system has been deployed in key areas affected by thaw settlement along the CRCOP to guarantee the safe operation of the pipeline. This system provides real-time alerts and verifies the cooling mechanism of the vertical two-phase closed thermosyphons (TPCTs) used for mitigating thaw settlement. However, on-site monitoring results indicate that the TPCTs alone cannot maintain the permafrost temperature in the vicinity of the CRCOP, suggesting the need for optimized TPCT arrangements. This study proposes three design schemes to optimize the configuration of TPCTs based on in-situ observations. Numerical simulation results indicate that the composite approach — combining TPCTs with a thermal insulation layer — performs better than the standalone TPCT configuration. Using this composite solution, the artificial permafrost table (APT) can be stably maintained at approximately 2.5 m depth. This strategy is recommended for engineering applications in permafrost environments. Furthermore, the findings of this study provide valuable guidance for the CRCOP and other similar pipeline projects in permafrost regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"241 ","pages":"Article 104651"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144989394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Research on the types and characteristics of permafrost engineering distress in the China-Nepal Transportation Corridor","authors":"Tianqi Zhang ,&nbsp;Tao Luo ,&nbsp;Haipeng Yang ,&nbsp;Chonglei Zhang ,&nbsp;Wansheng Pei","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104658","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104658","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The treacherous terrain, complex geology, and frequent natural disasters along the China-Nepal Transportation Corridor posing significant challenges to the maintenance and construction of permafrost engineering within the corridor. This study focuses on the China-Nepal Highway (CNH), and systematically discusses the main types, typical characteristics, distribution patterns, and their interactions with different influencing factors of embankment engineering distress (EH), bridge engineering distress (BH), traffic auxiliary facilities distress (TH), and hydraulic engineering distress (HH) along the route. Field surveys showed that the distress characteristics of the main roads (G318, G216, G219) of the CNH under the freeze-thaw action are as follows: the EH were mainly crack, raveling and differential settlement, accounting for more than 45.0 %, with a higher proportion of crack exceeding 60.0 %; the BH, TH, and HH were mainly dominated by freeze-thaw erosion, accounting for more than 60.0 %, with traffic ancillary facilities being more susceptible to freeze-thaw erosion. According to the statistical results between permafrost engineering distress distribution and permafrost environmental factors, the occurrence of the ED is more prevalent in regions with MAGT below 2.5 °C and MTSFG above 0.3 m, the BD is more likely to emerge in areas with MAGT below 2 °C and MTSFG below 0.9 m, the TD is more prone to occur with MAGT below 2 °C and MTSFG above 1.2 m and the HD tends to be more common when MAGT is below 1.5 °C and MTSFG is range of 0.9–1.5 m. A variety of freeze-thaw disasters (freeze-thaw debris flow, freeze-thaw landslide, thermokarst lake, and freeze-thaw slumping, etc.) were widely distributed along the CNH, directly threatening the road safety. Based on these findings, targeted suggestions were put forward for the proposed China-Nepal Railway from both freeze-thaw disaster prevention measures and freeze-thaw erosion engineering treatment measures. The research results can not only provide basic data for permafrost-related research in the corridor, but also provide scientific references for the prevention and treatment of distress in existing and proposed permafrost engineering within the corridor.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"241 ","pages":"Article 104658"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144926579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating the impacts of localized artificial enhancement of sea ice albedo over Beaufort Gyre towards restoring Arctic Sea Ice","authors":"Detelina Ivanova ,&nbsp;Subarna Bhattacharyya ,&nbsp;Anthony Strawa ,&nbsp;Steve Zornetzer ,&nbsp;Stephanie Olinger ,&nbsp;Leslie Field ,&nbsp;Alexander Ivanov ,&nbsp;Ethan Kusnadi ,&nbsp;Jacob Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104657","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104657","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>CMIP6 projections show that the Arctic could be ice-free by 2050, leading to global climate disruptions like destabilizing polar jets, stronger storms and prolonged droughts. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions alone will not be sufficient to preserve Arctic sea ice, necessitating additional climate restoration efforts. Field et al. (2018) proposed restoring sea ice by artificially enhancing surface sea ice albedo with reflective hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) and their modeling simulations show the potential of this technology in Arctic sea ice recovery. While Arctic-wide application is expensive, localized targeted deployments may be feasible. Here we investigate the impacts and efficacy of regional surface albedo modification (SAM) application in the Beaufort Gyre (BG) on the Arctic sea ice and atmospheric radiation budget. We simulate SAM in the BG region carrying out a ten-member ensemble of 50 years (2000–2050) integrations using a global CESM2 climate model. Our results show that ∼50 % surface albedo enhancement in the BG region reduces absorbed surface radiation by ∼5 W/m² and increases outgoing radiation at the top of the atmosphere by ∼4.34 W/m² during summer, comparable to the global anthropogenic radiative forcing of 4.5 W/m² in the underlying SSP2–4.5 scenario. These radiation budget changes cool the surface of Arctic annually by 0.78 °C, BG area by 3 °C and thicken the BG area summer sea ice by up to ∼1 m. Our findings suggest that targeted SAM could help preserve Arctic sea ice, and delay an ice-free Arctic ocean, offering a viable interim climate intervention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"241 ","pages":"Article 104657"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144934003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"UAV-borne GPR for snowpack characterization: Potential, limitations and operational guidelines","authors":"Bastien Dupuy ,&nbsp;Arnt Grøver ,&nbsp;Stéphane Garambois ,&nbsp;Andrew Tobiesen ,&nbsp;Pauline Lorand ,&nbsp;Halgeir Dahle ,&nbsp;Sean Salazar ,&nbsp;Regula Frauenfelder ,&nbsp;Benjamin Emmel ,&nbsp;Aslak Einbu ,&nbsp;Tore Humstad","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104641","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104641","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Characterization and monitoring of the snow cover is highly applicable for numerous problems in mountain and arctic environments, including avalanche hazard and hydrology assessments. Remote sensing techniques from space or air are conventionally used to map and monitor large areas. To bridge the gap between satellite and ground scales, we propose the use of UAV-borne GPR systems to optimize areal coverage, resolution and repeatability for snowpack information. We present an extensive study of the potential applications and limitations when using UAV-borne GPR for snowpack characterization. We discuss the operational constraints and demonstrate various examples conducted in different environments. We tested low (400 MHz) and high (1 GHz) frequency GPR systems on a commercial off-the-shelf UAV equipped with a radar altimeter and terrain following capabilities. GPR data were acquired at three field sites in central and western Norway. We demonstrate that data repeatability is satisfactory and that any measurement differences are due to aircraft positioning errors. We also tested data acquisition from various flight altitudes above the snow surface which led us to the conclusion that recording data between altitudes of 2 to 4 m above the surface is the best compromise between flight safety and data quality. Regarding flight speeds, if we focus on layer tracking and do not require high lateral resolution for discrete target mapping, data can be acquired at 2 m/s or more as long as flight safety is ensured. We recommend recording data along pre-determined flight paths, downslope starting from the highest elevation and following profiles parallel to the slope. Kinematic timelapse surveys recorded at a two-week interval highlighted the capabilities for thin layer detection. Centimeter thick melt-freeze crust layers are visible on GPR profiles and are correlated with observed layers in neighboring snowpits. Additional tests in wet snowpacks showed that the penetration depth was limited with the 1 GHz antenna due to the attenuation related to the presence of liquid water in the snowpack. The use of a lower frequency antenna (400 MHz) enabled sufficient penetration depth even though it caused a loss in resolution for mapping the upper layers of the snowpack. Overall, the UAV GPR surveys showed promising results towards recording highly repeatable snow height and snow layering data which can be helpful for avalanche forecasting and hydrology studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"241 ","pages":"Article 104641"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144989395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing regression-based deep learning for river ice estimation from drone images","authors":"Victoria Litalien ,&nbsp;Jason Duguay ,&nbsp;Mélanie Trudel ,&nbsp;Samuel Foucher ,&nbsp;Jérôme Théau ,&nbsp;Mathieu Fouquet","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104656","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104656","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The concentration of frazil ice, crucial to the development of river ice covers and the numerical modeling of ice cover development, is challenging to measure in situ. Remote sensing using deep neural networks on images of frazil drift ice taken from drone is promising but faces challenges due to limited annotated datasets and difficulty in visually distinguishing ice types and boundaries. In this work, a method for acquiring and processing optical drone river ice images was developed to estimate the concentration of frazil drift ice, mostly in frazil slush form. Drone images were acquired on four mesoscale rivers (widths of <span><math><mo>≈</mo></math></span> 30 to 100 m) situated in the south of the Province of Quebec, Canada during the 2022–2023 and the 2023–2024 winter. A first Convolutional Neural Network was trained to perform an initial classification. This Convolutional Neural Network, the static ice model, was trained to segment the images in four classes: water, static ice, trees above water and other. Despite a few minor classification errors, the model was used to estimate the extent of static ice cover. Once the initial classification was made, the frazil drift ice concentration was estimated by taking into account only the flow zone. To do so, two Convolutional Neural Networks were trained with the same dataset but annotated with two different techniques: semantic segmentation and regression. Following the analysis of the results, it was concluded that regression is highly promising for estimating frazil drift ice concentration, particularly when the ice is in slush form and at high concentrations. The differences between the concentrations obtained using this method and those obtained manually are quite small (between 0 % and 2.2 %). With the same annotation effort as regression, the segmentation technique shows higher deviations (between 0.1 % and 9.4 %). The segmentation trained model encounters challenges in accurately identifying water areas surrounded by frazil and tend to extend frazil boundaries beyond their actual limits, which lead to an overestimation of the frazil drift ice concentration. These results confirm the potential of using drone imagery to train a regression-annotated Convolutional Neural Network for estimating frazil surface concentration in mesoscale rivers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"240 ","pages":"Article 104656"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stress-Strain Behavior and Strength Criterion of Frozen Silty Clay under Varying Intermediate Principal Stresses","authors":"Hongpeng Zhang ,&nbsp;Qinyong Ma ,&nbsp;Zhaohui Joey Yang ,&nbsp;Kun Huang ,&nbsp;Dongdong Ma ,&nbsp;Zhaoming Yao ,&nbsp;Zicheng Wang ,&nbsp;Fuqiang Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104653","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104653","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The impact of intermediate principal stress on the shear strength of frozen soil is rarely addressed. This study presents plane-strain test results of frozen silty clay at relatively high confining pressure using a custom-made true triaxial apparatus and analyzes the impact of intermediate principal stress and minor principal stress on its strength properties. Further, a <em>p</em>-<em>q</em> strength criterion accounting for the effects of intermediate principal stress was proposed. The experimental results revealed that as intermediate principal stress and minor principal stress increase, the shear strength rises and then drops under plane-strain testing conditions. The relationships between the mean confining pressure, the generalized shear stress and the strain in the major principal stress direction under different minor principal stress values exhibit strain-hardening characteristics. The relationships between the generalized shear stress at failure and mean confining pressure at failure curves, the strength ratio and mean confining pressure at failure curves, as well as the strength ratio and intermediate principal stress at failure all exhibit conical shapes. The shear strength ratio declines with increasing intermediate principal stress ratio, demonstrating the negative impact of intermediate principal stress on the shear resistance of frozen silt clay. Moreover, there exists a critical intermediate principal stress ratio, beyond which the strength ratio decreases rapidly. The proposed <em>p</em>-<em>q</em> strength criterion can effectively reflect the effects of intermediate principal stress and minor principal stress as well as the mean confining pressure on the strength characteristics of frozen silty clay under plane-strain testing conditions. The experimental data and proposed model offer insight into frozen fine-grained soils at high confining pressures at complex loading conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"240 ","pages":"Article 104653"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144917261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A novel approach for the separation of frozen water bodies from snow to enhance snow mapping accuracy in high-altitude wetlands","authors":"P.S. Smitha ,&nbsp;K. Maya ,&nbsp;K.P. Sudheer ,&nbsp;V.M. Bindhu ,&nbsp;K. Sreelash ,&nbsp;D. Padmalal","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104649","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104649","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Precise estimation of snow cover is of great importance for hydrological, environmental, and climate change impact studies due to the significant role it plays in runoff generation and climate regulation in high altitudes, where frozen / glacier lakes pose a potential threat from outbursts of floods. Although many remote sensing-based indices are employed to delineate snow and to separate frozen water bodies from snow, it is difficult, especially in high-altitude wetlands, due to their spectral similarity, which may result in an overestimation of snow. Moreover, most of the existing snow indices rely on thresholding techniques to distinguish snow from waterbodies, but this approach has limitations due to its high spatio temporal variability, leading to reduced accuracy in snow mapping. In this context, the present study developed a new constraint based snow mapping approach (CBSMA) for the separation of frozen waterbodies /glacial lakes from spectrally similar snow-covered areas without the need for thresholding and demonstrates its potential for precise snow mapping compared to other existing spectral indices using Sentinel 2 imagery. The evaluation of CBSMA based on qualitative and quantitative analyses indicated overall agreement values of above 95 % and F1 score values of above 0.95 across all study areas and periods. The poor correlation of CBSMA with the existing indices ensures a reduction in spectral confusion and could improve the precision in the separation of frozen and non-frozen water bodies from snow cover areas, even without the need for thresholding or masking. Hence, CBSMA can be used as a promising alternative to the existing snow mapping methods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"240 ","pages":"Article 104649"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Water-induced distress characteristics and mechanism of a separated expressway traversing thaw-sensitive permafrost zones","authors":"Minghao Liu ,&nbsp;Bingyan Li ,&nbsp;Yanhu Mu ,&nbsp;Jing Luo ,&nbsp;Fei Yin ,&nbsp;Xiangbing Kong","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104650","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104650","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Gonghe-Yushu Expressway (GYE), as the first and only expressway constructed in the degrading permafrost zones of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is significantly affected by widespread water accumulation near the roadway, primarily due to climate warming and increased precipitation. However, a gap remains in understanding of the impact of water accumulation on progression of permafrost subgrade distress and its triggering mechanisms. This study employed a multi-source methodology integrating manual survey, unmanned aerial vehicle survey and ground-penetrating radar detection to investigate the distress characteristics of permafrost roadway and to quantify their correlations with water ponding along the GYE. A machine learning-based model was established to predict the occurring probability of water-induced distress and to identify the critical factors influencing permafrost distress. The results indicate that more than 60 % of permafrost sections exhibit distress, particularly in warm and ice-rich permafrost areas, where the distress rate can reach up to 60 %. Water ponding is closely correlated with the progression of roadway distress. Approximately 66.1 % of roadway distresses are linked to water ponding, and the severity of these distresses increases as ponding area expands, ponding depth increases, and the distance from slope toe decreases. Furthermore, the model predicts a total distressed section length of 44.95 km, with water-induced distress accounting for 29.81 km (66.3 %). These predictions align closely with field survey results. Additionally, the model indicates that water ponding ranks second only to ice content as a critical factor inducing permafrost roadway distress. Water ponding functions as a persistent heat source, inducing hydrothermal effects on the nearby permafrost foundation and exacerbating uneven thawing, thereby accelerating the settlement progression. This study enhances the understanding of triggering mechanisms of water accumulation on expressway subgrade and provides valuable insights for maintenance of permafrost road infrastructure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"240 ","pages":"Article 104650"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144885548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}