The Influence of Geometry of Helical Anchors on Frost-Heave Performance in Seasonal Frozen Regions

helical anchor geometric dimension frozen soil freeze-thaw cycle frost jacking
["Zhang, Ji","Liu, Yan","Lv, Zhonghua","Hao, Dongxue","Zhao, Xinying","Wang, Haoyu","Shi, Yexian","Zhang, Yuhang"] 2025-05-16 期刊论文
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Helical anchors are deep foundation systems that offer high uplift capacity due to the increased interaction area between the helix and surrounding soil, thus exhibiting strong potential for resisting frost jacking in cold-region engineering. The influence of helical anchor geometry on frost heave behavior remains a critical yet insufficiently understood factor in engineering designs. Accordingly, this study conducts experimental and numerical investigations to evaluate the effects of helix number, helix diameter, helix spacing, and freeze-thaw cycles on frost jacking and thaw-induced settlement. The results indicate that the frost jacking and residual displacement after thawing gradually decrease with increasing freeze-thaw cycles and tend to stabilize after more than three cycles. Numerical simulations show that the residual displacements for full-scale anchors range from 12% to 33% of the peak frost jacking. Anchors with a greater number of helices demonstrate improved resistance to frost jacking when the uplift capabilities are comparable. When the helix spacing ranges from 2D to 6D (where D denotes the helix diameter), the double-helix anchor with 2D spacing exhibits the highest stability during freeze-thaw cycles, followed by the anchor with 3D spacing. However, the anchor with 2D spacing yields the lowest uplift capacity under unfrozen soil conditions. Anchors with a helix spacing of 2D to 3D are recommended for resisting freeze-thaw effects, provided that this configuration does not significantly reduce the uplift capacity.
来源平台:BUILDINGS