Study on Frost Heave Control Measures and Their Effectiveness for Existing Railway Subgrades in Cold Regions

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-726-7_81How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Railway subgrade; Heat preservation; Waterproof; Anti-frostbite swelling; Numerical simulation

Abstract

In order to mitigate the impacts of disasters such as frost heave, thawing, and settlement on railway subgrades in cold regions, and based on the theory of frozen soil frost heave while considering the influence of solar radiation, this paper proposes an insulation and waterproofing measure to prevent frost heave in these subgrades. A transient numerical model for the water-heat-force coupling of frost heave in subgrades is established, and its feasibility is validated by comparing on-site measured data with simulation results. The effectiveness of the proposed insulation and waterproofing measures is further validated by comparing the frost heave mitigation effects between the original and treated subgrades. Research shows that the uneven frost heave of the subgrade is aggravated by the sunny-shady slope effect caused by solar radiation. The primary cause of frost heave is the accumulation of moisture in the fine-grained clay layer of the subgrade. Compared to the original subgrade, the treated subgrade exhibits a more uniform temperature distribution and a smaller temperature gradient, significantly mitigating the sunny-shady slope effect. This helps alleviate uneven frost heave, as well as surface melting and subsidence. Additionally, it reduces the annual variation in displacement, minimizes vertical frost heave displacement, and enhances the stability of the subgrade structure, effectively managing frost heave issues in existing railway subgrades.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yugang Ren
AU  - Honglin Ding
AU  - Liwen Zhang
AU  - Yin Chen
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/06/13
TI  - Study on Frost Heave Control Measures and Their Effectiveness for Existing Railway Subgrades in Cold Regions
BT  - Proceedings of the 2024 6th International Conference on Hydraulic, Civil and Construction Engineering (HCCE 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 804
EP  - 813
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-726-7_81
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-726-7_81
ID  - Ren2025
ER  -