Calculating maximum frost depths at Mn/ROAD : winters 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96

Details

• Creators:
  Berg, Richard L.
• Corporate Contributors:
  Frost Associates
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Freezing Index Frost Frost Penetration Ground Freezing Mathematical Models Minnesota Mn/Road Modified Berggren Equation (MBE) Soil Temperature Soil Thermal Conductivity Subgrade (Pavements) Tables (Data)

  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  MN/RC-97/21
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  Minnesota
• Edition:
  Final report--1996
• Corporate Publisher:
  Minnesota. Department of Transportation
• Abstract:
  This effort involved calculating maximum frost penetration depths for each of the 40 test cells at Mn/ROAD, the Minnesota Department of Transportation's pavement testing facility, for the 1993-94, 1994-95, and 1995-96 winters. The report compares results with measured maximum frost penetration depths for the same three winters. Generally, calculated depths were within plus or minus 15% of measured depths, but differences were much greater for the four test cells underlain by the granular subgrade. Researchers conducted sensitivity tests to determine the influence of the n-factor, soil moisture content, material density, layer thickness, thermal conductivity, mean annual soil temperature, and volumetric latent heat of fusion. Conclusions included the following: (1) Small variation in layer thickness will have a very minor effect on computed frost depths; (2) Reasonable variations in moisture content and density of the various base course, subbase course, and subgrade layers will have a minor effect on calculated frost penetration depths; (3) Large n-factors caused deeper calculated frost penetration depths, and the use of n-factors of .90 and .95, respectively, for flexible and rigid pavements provided the most reasonable estimates of frost depths; (4) Increasing the thermal conductivity of the materials by 25% resulted in closer calculated agreement with measured frost depths; and (5) Using a mean annual soil temperature of 9.4 deg C rather than 11.1 deg C resulted in better agreement between calculated and measured data. Tables, figures. 1879k, 70p.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  75209
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:3d27b11a9e9d3fee35bdc7ec776598ac72df0225f70c3f004d081713f1b7c5ad
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/14715/dot_14715_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 6.08 MB ]