A poromechanics approach to assess the effect of frost heave on double-barrel culverts in cold regions

ABSTRACT: The serviceability of infrastructure such as buried utilities, pavement structures, and building foundations in cold regions can be adversely affected by seasonal frost actions in cold regions. Frost actions on road structures including culverts can be more complicated to assess and mitigate due to the existing double-cooling sources, i.e. pavement surface and subsurface culverts openings. Culverts are used as a waterway under a road and their structural integrity has an impact on the road roughness. Multi-physics analysis including heat transfer, mass transfer and mechanical analysis is required to explain thoroughly the formation of ice lenses in frost-susceptible soils. This paper aims to numerically study the distribution of temperature and pore-water pressure during the freezing process as well as the deformation in the soil due to frost heave by using a coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) model in the framework of the mechanics of porous media.