Thermal Design of Pavement Structures in Seasonal Frost Areas

In many practical situations, adequate thermal design of pavement structures in seasonal frost areas can be done by utilizing a model based on heat conduction alone. In this paper we present a system of computer programs which allow the solution of practically any nonlinear heat conduction problem in soils, provided that a two-dimensional description, plane or axisymmetric, is possible. The finite element method, together with the empirical correlations for thermal properties and boundary conditions, is used in the simulations. Predictions of the thermal regime in different structures are favorably compared with the results of experimental measurements, both for long-term and short-term temperature variations.