Recent Advances in Permafrost Geotechnics

S.M. Springman
Institute for Geotechnical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
L.U. Arenson
BGC Engineering Inc., Vancouver, Canada

Abstract

Tribute is paid to progress in Permafrost Science and Engineering, from a geotechnical point of view, since the Millennium. Advances and concerns will be presented, embellished with thoughts about geotechnical aspects of the Ultimate and Serviceability Limit State requirements for cold regions infrastructure "Soil Structure Interaction," to be able to answer the challenges posed by climate change on a warming planet. Improvements and new developments have been described, briefly, for laboratory testing, physical and coupled numerical modeling. However, recent research progress in geotechnical aspects has not always permeated into practice, and a fundamental need remains to develop, calibrate and validate fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical models. This short review paper does not claim to cover all research and developments and will attempt to summarise topical findings in cold regions geotechnics.

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