Study on long-term stability of Qinghai-Tibet Railway embankment

In order to predict long-term stability of Qinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) embankment, a moisture, heat and creep couple model is deduced on the basis of principal theories of numerical heat transfer, physics of frozen soil, frozen soil mechanics and theology of frozen soil. And in this model. the moisture and temperature field are interacted with each other, the parameters of frozen soil change with soil temperature variation and an in-situ creep equation of frozen soil is also included. Meanwhile, a finite element program is written. Then, the long-term stability of the embankment is studied in detail. Through comparing with observation data, it is found that the proposed analytical model is correct and reasonable, thus it can well describe and predict the long-term stability problem of the QTR embankment. Additionally, it is a reference to analyze the deformation problems of other buildings in permafrost regions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.