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Thermo-hydro-mechanical process and damage mechanism of a cold-region canal under coupled wetting–drying and freezing–thawing cycles

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Abstract

In cold regions, periodic wetting–drying and freezing–thawing (WDFT) actions lead to frequent and heavy canal damage, weakening the water-conveyance capacities of canals. The WDFT cycle is a complicated process involving a thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) interaction. To understand the THM process and damage mechanism of a cold-region canal (CRC), a THM model is proposed and used to simulate a centrifuge test on a CRC. The centrifuge modeling and numerical simulation results show that there are three freezing–thawing processes in the shallow ground of the CRC. Thus, a notable water–ice phase and water redistribution occur in the ground with alternating freezing–thawing process. The drastic heat and water variations of the freezing–thawing ground result in repeated frost deformations and even failure of the CRC. In addition, several possible defects in the centrifuge modeling of the CRC in a coupled WDFT environment are pointed out according to the result comparisons between the centrifuge modeling and numerical simulation. This study can improve the understanding of the THM process and damage mechanism of CRCs in complex environments and is also a reference for further study.

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Abbreviations

\(T\) :

Temperature

\(\lambda\) :

Thermal conductivity

\(c\) :

Specific heat capacity

\(\rho\) :

Soil density

L :

Latent heat of ice-water phase change

\(\rho_{{\text{i}}}\) :

Ice density

\(\theta_{{\text{i}}}\) :

Volumetric ice content

\(\nabla\) :

Hamilton operator

\(D_{{\text{w}}}\) :

Water diffusion coefficient

\(\theta_{{\text{w}}}\) :

Volumetric content of liquid water

\(k_{{\text{w}}}\) :

Hydraulic conductivity

\({\varvec{e}}\) :

Direction vector

\(\rho_{{\text{w}}}\) :

Water density

\(c_{1}\) :

Experimental constant

\(c_{2}\) :

Experimental constant

\(T_{{\text{f}}}\) :

Freezing temperature

\(\partial\) :

Differential operator

\({\varvec{G}}\) :

Body force matrix

\({\varvec{D}}\) :

Matrix of elastic moduli

\({{\varvec{\upsigma}}}\) :

Stress vector

\({\varvec{\varepsilon}}\) :

Strain vector

\({\varvec{\varepsilon}}_{{{\text{ve}}}}\) :

Viscoelastic strain vector

\({\varvec{\varepsilon}}_{{{\text{vp}}}}\) :

Viscoplastic strain vector

\({\varvec{\varepsilon}}_{{\text{V}}}\) :

Frost heave strain vector

\(\eta_{1}\) :

Viscoelastic coefficient

\({\varvec{C}}_{0}\) :

Flexibility matrix with unit elastic modulus

\(\eta_{2}\) :

Viscoplastic coefficient

\(\Phi\) :

Plastic potential function

F :

Yield function

\(\theta_{w0}\) :

Initial volumetric content of liquid water

\(n_{{\text{s}}}\) :

Porosity

\({\varvec{u}}\) :

Displacement vector

\(P_{i}\) :

Mechanical parameter

\(w_{{\text{L}}}\) :

Liquid limit

\(w\) :

Water content

\(w_{{{\text{op}}}}\) :

Optimum water content

\(\rho_{{{\text{d}}\max }}\) :

Maximum dry density

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ZDRW-ZS-2020-1), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42071092), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDY-SSW-DQC015), and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Y201975, 2015349). We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for very helpful suggestions that were used to improve the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, China

    Shuangyang Li, Yuanming Lai & Qi Jiang

  2. School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, China

    Chong Wang

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, China

    Jiale Yang

  4. School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, Sichuan, China

    Xusheng Wan

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  1. Shuangyang Li
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Correspondence to Chong Wang.

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Li, S., Wang, C., Yang, J. et al. Thermo-hydro-mechanical process and damage mechanism of a cold-region canal under coupled wetting–drying and freezing–thawing cycles. Acta Geotech. 17, 4655–4665 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-022-01531-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-022-01531-7

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