Experimental checking of stability of underground pedestrian crossings on heaving soils

Conclusions 1. Underground crossing structures on natural soil bases may be used also for heaving soils provided their strength and rigidity are increased, taking into account the nonuniform deformations. It is recommended that a value of 0.0015 be used for the limiting allowable coefficient of relative deformation nonuniformity of tunnels.2. If the tunnel is considered as a reinforced concrete underground frame buried in the soil, then for strength, crack-resistance, and deflection design under the normal frost heave force, this force should be assumed to be equal to the soil reaction in the tunnel base under all the permanent and short-duration loads, taken in accordance with SNiP II-D.7-62; also, account must be taken of the friction force caused by the backfill sand on the tunnel lateral surface.3. For freezing and thawing of the soils in the bases of underground crossings, the plastic deformations are insignificant, i.e., the frost heave is practically equal to the settlement under thawing.4. The weak correlation between the coefficient K_n and the heave indicates that measures intended to reduce the depth of freezing (heave) by heating the bottom or by partially replacing the heaving soils by nonheaving under deep seasonal freezing cannot, per se, ensure crack resistance of the crossing structures.5. During freezing of soils in the bases of crossings, processes of heaving and shrink-age occur. For hard and medium hard consistency, with W_PL, the shrinkage may be greater than the heaving, which should be taken into account for determining the depth of the foundations under deep seasonal freezing conditions.Omskgrazhdanproekt. Translated from Osnovaniya, Fundamenty i Mekhanika Gruntov, No. 3, pp. 10–12, May–June, 1981.