The Problem

Degradation of permafrost due to construction or climate change is a major concern in arctic engineering. Melting permafrost results in ground strength loss, release of trapped pore-water, and subsequent deformation and stability concerns.

The Solution

GeoStudio can consider ground freezing and thawing with phase change due to conduction or both conduction and convection of heat in moving water and or moving air. There are a variety of boundary condition options that allow for steady state or transient analyses. Actual climate data can be used to couple the ground surface with the climate using a rigorous method. Optionally, an Add-In has been written to apply the Hwang (1972) climate algorithm within TEMP/W. A “thermosyphon” boundary condition is specially implemented to allow for coupling of ground response to air temperature and wind-speed. Using Add-In constitutive models in SIGMA/W and SLOPE/W will allow for the results from a thermal analysis to be used to assess deformations or stability due to changing ground strengths that are temperature dependent.