Simulating and validating the effects of slope frost heaving on canal bed saturated soil using coupled heat-moisture-deformation model

The lining canals in seasonal frozen soil areas can be severely damaged by frost heaving. The freezing and thawing contributes to the continual change of the temperature field and moisture field beneath lining canal, which will seriously affect the safe operation of the canal. In order to study the frost heaving damage mechanism of lining canal and to solve the associated engineering problems, the permafrost body was regarded as an elastomer, and a three-field, coupled, partial differential equation describing the temperature, moisture and deformation fields for a saturated two-dimensional canal bed was derived and established based on the Harlan model. The coupling equations were discretized using the finite element method in space and the finite difference method in time. The parameters were simplified appropriately based on compliance with the actual conditions and were simulated using finite element software. The results of a sample simulation showed that the simulated results and test results were basically consistent with variation laws, which proved the correctness of the numerical simulation theory and solution methods and the reliability of the calculation. The model can simulate the water, heat and deformation issues in the side slope of saturated canal bed soil in a seasonally frozen area and forecast freezing damage in the canals.