A novel assembled channel lining for reducing frost heave in seasonally frozen regions

The destruction of channel lining under frost action in seasonally frozen regions has become a prominent factor restricting water transportation in western regions of China, which has also caused a lot of waste of water resources. A novel assembled channel lining for reducing frost heave destruction was presented in this paper. The assembled channel and a normal channel with the trapezoidal section were carried out in the laboratory, considering different water level storage in the high-temperature period. The results revealed that the freezing depths in the channel was quite different, and the order from large to small is the channel embankment, center of the bottom and slope toe. Meanwhile, compared to the variation of water level, the influence of water storage in the channel on the frost heave deformation is more significant than that in the absence of water in the channel. The triangular prism block with the large cross-section set at the slope toe of the assembled channel not only has the insulation effect and a specific anti-seepage function at the channel foundation soil to a certain extent, but also connects the independent concrete plates one by one with the loop-end buckle groove to make the channel deformation uniform under the frost heave. Therefore, the assembled channel could be considered as a novel channel structure to prevent and reduce the frost heave damage in seasonally frozen regions.