By Tass
MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. Researchers of MIPT and the Kurchatov Institute conducted a vibration analysis of railway tracks in permafrost conditions to clarify nature of the so-called ice lenses – a most dangerous manifestation of permafrost. The calculations results may be used to make Arctic railways safer, MIPT’s Center for Scientific Communication said.
“The calculations have shown that, on one hand, the ice lens creates a dangerous stress peak, which must be taken into account in designing. On the other hand, if the structure is able to survive this peak, then later on the lens’ presence may play a positive role by giving additional stability to the railway track,” the release reads.
This conclusion was made by a group of Russian researchers led by MIPT Professor Alena Favorskaya. One of the main obstacles to Arctic infrastructures construction is that in freezing wet soils emerge large ice inclusions, or so-called ice lenses.
The lenses expand and unevenly lift the railway thus deforming rails and posing threat to traffic safety. One of the most difficult tasks engineering geology faces is to predict how such a complex system may behave under load from a passing train. The Russian researchers have used own methods, based on matrices and chimeric computational grids.
“We have used a common background grid for soil and ballast, and superimposed on it a separate, high-precision curved grid that perfectly describes the ice lens geometry. Further on, special algorithms “stitch” these grids, ensuring the correct information exchange between them,” the center quoted MIPT’s Engineer Evgeny Pesnya as saying.
The calculations showed that initially ice lenses increase by 13% pressure on the crushed stone layer where sleepers lie, however, at the same time they may also work as diffusers that stabilize the path and prevent stress concentration. This may be useful in construction of railways in the Arctic or in high-altitude areas with permafrost, the scientists said in conclusion.