Thermal Design Considerations in Frozen Ground Engineering

Book excerpt: Prepared by the Technical Council on Cold Regions Engineering of ASCE. The design of engineering projects in frozen ground requires thermal design considerations in addition to standard geotechnical design. Factors that influence the thermal characteristics of a site include climatological data, microclimatic characteristics, local hydrology, soil properties, and disturbance. This monograph presents ground temperature observations, procedures for temperature monitoring, analytical methods for ground thermal regime calculations, and ground thermal properties. Active and passive techniques for ground temperature control and ground thawing methods are also presented, followed by case histories of ground temperature effects.