Reline Jacket: Efficient Reduction of Frost-Heave Uplift of Piles in Warming Permafrost

Abstract

Air temperature in the Northern Hemisphere has been progressively warming in the recent decades, and the ground temperatures have increased correspondingly. The air temperature increasing due to the climate change induces degradation of permafrost and frost heaving activation. The frost heaving forces cause unevenly distributed damaging displacement of foundations and thus poses problems to the development of Arctic regions. Frost-heave uplift forces can be reduced by protecting piles with an OSPTReline (or Reline) polymer heat-shrinkable jacket. The interaction of heaving soil with a pile covered with the Reline jacket is modeled in laboratory to estimate the uplift force and the related shear strength of frozen soil along the soil-pile adfreeze surface at temperatures from −6 to −1 °C. The data are obtained for silty sand and silty clay soils and mortar (1:5 cement-sand mixture). The experiments show that frost-heave uplift forces on Reline-protected piles are 52% to 85% lower than on uncovered steel piles (steel grade 09G2S—analog to European steel grade S355JR), depending on soil type and temperature.

Определение Несущей Способности Свайно-Винтового Фундамента В Криолитозоне

“…Строительство любого здания и сооружения начинается прежде всего с возведения фундамента. Качество устройства фундамента и сопутствующие строительно-монтажные работы в дальнейшем обеспечивают надежное функционирование сооружения и являются весьма актуальной и с той же стороны проблематичной строительной и инженерной задачей, особенно в условиях распространения криолитозоны на фоне глобального процесса потепления климата [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

Permafrost and Gas Hydrate Response to Ground Warming

“…Three papers [8][9][10] consider climate-induced changes in composition and properties in warming permafrost [8], which is critical for production operations [9,10]. The behavior of unfrozen pore water contents in the Arctic permafrost [8] is important as the latter may change considerably its mechanic, thermal, and other physical properties under ongoing warming.…”

“…Two other papers [9,10] investigate interactions of wells and piles with permafrost at petroleum production sites in the present climate conditions. In the first, the thermal interaction of a gas-producing well with ice-rich permafrost containing relict gas hydrates is modeled [9] in Ansys Fluent using the enthalpy formulation of the Stephan problem.…”

“…The other paper [10] possesses valuable practical results as it presents a new method to protect overdriven and bored precast piles from frost-heaving effects in the Arctic region caused by climate warming. It is suggested to insulate the piles with the OSPT Reline polymer heat-shrinkable jacket designed at the Mayak Plant for Polymer Technologies (Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region, Urals, Russia).…”