Heat transfer process of roadway embankments with different type and width of road surface in permafrost regions

The stability of roadbed in permafrost areas has become a big concern with rapid development and construction of throughways, highways and railways in these areas under the current climate change since it is governed by the thermal condition, or in other words, the heat transfer process in the embankment. We carried out a finite element analysis to analyze the effects of different types of road surface and the effect of breadth of embankment on the embankment heat transfer process. The results indicated that the mean annual heat transfer rate at the bottom of the roadway embankment with asphalt surfaces is 3 times that with sandy gravel surfaces. This means annual heat transfer rate increased by 60% when the breadth of asphalt surface was doubled. The increased heat transfer rate was mainly located at the bottom of the embankment and resulted in the effect of thermal concentration, leading to degradation of the permafrost by as much as 1.6 times. It was also found that increasing embankment height would not reduce these increases of the heat transfer rate. Therefore both asphalt road surface and increased embankment breadth can lead to an intensified heat transfer rate in roadway embankment, consequently degradating the underlying permafrost and embankment instability.