Cold Regions Science and Technology最新文献

{"title":"Polyurethane grouting materials for infrastructure reinforcement in cold regions: State of the art and perspectives","authors":"Tan Liling ,&nbsp;Guo Ming ,&nbsp;Yu Wenbing ,&nbsp;Han Fenglei ,&nbsp;Li Guo ,&nbsp;Gao Meng","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104766","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104766","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Amid global climate change, freeze-thaw cycles in cold regions have intensified, reducing the stability of infrastructures and significantly increasing the demand for grouting reinforcement. However, the deterioration in the durability of existing grouting materials under the combined effects of freeze-thaw cycles and low temperatures has become a major technical bottleneck restricting their application in cold regions. This paper focuses on polyurethane (PU) grouting materials with foaming and lifting characteristics, systematically reviewing the research progress and technical challenges associated with their engineering applications in cold regions. First, in terms of material composition and preparation, the core components and modified additives are detailed to establish a theoretical foundation for performance regulation. Second, addressing the application requirements in cold regions, standardized testing methods and comprehensive evaluation systems are summarized based on key indicators such as heat release temperature, impermeability, diffusion properties, mechanical strength, and expansion properties. Combined with microstructural characteristics, the deformation behavior and failure mechanisms of PU grouting materials under freeze-thaw cycles and salt-freezing environments are revealed. At the engineering application level, the challenges faced by PU grouting materials in cold regions—such as inhibited low-temperature reactivity and insufficient long-term durability—are highlighted. Finally, considering current research gaps, including the unclear mechanisms of microscopic dynamic evolution and the lack of studies on the combined effects of complex environments, future research directions are proposed. This paper aims to provide theoretical support for the development and application of PU grouting materials in cold-region geotechnical engineering.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104766"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145614639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development and application of a new simple algorithm for stochastic modeling of daily ground snow loads: A case study in Northeastern China","authors":"Huamei Mo ,&nbsp;Yuanyuan Li ,&nbsp;H.P. Hong ,&nbsp;Guolong Zhang ,&nbsp;Qingwen Zhang ,&nbsp;Feng Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104721","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104721","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The simulation or modeling of daily ground snow loads is a fundamental prerequisite for assessing the reliability of building structures subjected to the combined effects of snow and other loads. Taking northeastern China as an example, a novel and streamlined algorithm is introduced in this study to simulate daily ground snow loads, where the concept of daily snow declination rate was introduced, making the algorithm more logically explicit and more in line with reality when compared to existing models. The proposed algorithm models the arrival of snow events as a Poisson process, and five variables are involved in simulating the daily ground snow loads (represented by snow water equivalent, SWE), including the length of the snow period, <em>T</em> (days), the starting day, <em>SD</em> (dimensionless), the snow event arrival rate, <em>v</em> (dimensionless), the snow intensity, <em>A</em> (mm), and the daily snow declination rate, <em>d</em> (mm/day). Probabilistic models of the variables are determined from historical records of ground snow loads, and random samples of these variables are accordingly generated in the simulation. The implementation of this algorithm in the snowy region of northeastern China demonstrated its effectiveness. It's found that the simulated daily ground snow loads not only successfully replicate various patterns of snow accumulation but also align with the 50-year return period values of ground snow load. This validation underscores the algorithm's capability in simulating daily ground snow loads, thereby facilitating the investigation of the combined effects of snow load and other loading conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104721"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145414211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Initialization of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical models of permafrost terrain using the frozen-ground-fem package","authors":"Anna Pekinasova ,&nbsp;Jocelyn L. Hayley ,&nbsp;Brandon Karchewski","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104732","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104732","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Permafrost degradation under climate change poses growing risks to infrastructure and environmental stability in cold regions. Processes such as frost heave, thaw settlement, and thermokarst are intensifying due to rising temperatures, changing precipitation, and evolving snow and surface hydrology. While many thermal models capture heat transfer in permafrost, they often overlook the coupled thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical (THM) interactions that are crucial for predicting thaw-induced deformation and consolidation. A critical yet underreported aspect of permafrost modelling is the “spin-up” phase: an initialization procedure that applies cyclic boundary forcing to stabilize subsurface conditions before transient simulations. Prior studies, including <span><span>Ross et al. (2022)</span></span>, demonstrated that thermal spin-up alone can require over 10,000 cycles for permafrost ground, but neglected hydromechanical effects such as void ratio evolution and stress redistribution. In this study, we extend Ross et al.'s approach by implementing a coupled THM spin-up strategy using the open-source Python 3 package frozen-ground-fem. This one-dimensional, large-strain finite element framework solves for both temperature and void ratio, incorporating phase change, cryosuction, nonlinear constitutive laws, and residual stress initialization. Examples using Ross et al.'s input data illustrate how coupled initialization improves stability and accuracy of permafrost predictions. Our results demonstrate that joint thermal and hydromechanical spin-up significantly alters equilibrium profiles and enhances simulation reliability. The frozen-ground-fem model is freely available on GitHub, supporting open and reproducible development of climate-resilient permafrost infrastructure models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104732"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145414213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Glacier and glacial lake evolution in response to local climate forcing: A quantitative assessment in Ulugh Muztagh, Eastern Kunlun Mountains","authors":"Lihua Chen ,&nbsp;Yanjun Che ,&nbsp;Yun Cao ,&nbsp;Mingjun Zhang ,&nbsp;Lailei Gu ,&nbsp;Shijin Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104755","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104755","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As an important part of the glaciated region on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the western part of the Kunlun Mountains has mainly been studied, while little research has been conducted in the eastern part of the Kunlun Mountains due to its harsh environment and poor accessibility. In this study, the Ulugh Muztagh region of the largest glaciated region in the eastern Kunlun Mountains was selected as the study area to estimate the changes in the glaciers, glacial lakes, and local climate. The outlines of the glaciers and glacial lakes were manually extracted to obtain an accurate glacier inventory, and the characteristics of these glaciers and glacial lakes during 1990–2020 were analyzed. The results revealed that there were 245 glaciers and 16 glacial lakes in 1990 and 2020. During this period, the glacier area decreased by 7.95 ± 1.26 km² and the glacial lake area decreased by 0.24 km². The area of these glaciers exhibited a slight retreat, and the area of the glacial lakes shrank by 7.2 km². The number of glacial lakes exhibited a fluctuating increasing trend. Two glacial lake outbursts occurred in an ice-dammed lake in the northwestern part of Ulugh Muztagh during 1998–2002, exhibiting a periodic outburst pattern. In addition, the recession of the glaciers in contact with glacial lakes was more significant than that of the glaciers not in contact with glacial lakes. The significant increase in summer precipitation was a main driving factor in the evolution of the glacial lakes. The slight retreat of the glaciers in this region did not exhibit a significant correlation with the summer air temperature, but it did exhibit a correlation with the precipitation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104755"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145576643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Research on dynamic fitting models for road performance of self-melting ice surfaces and salt storage slow-release performance","authors":"Liqun Zhang ,&nbsp;Haodong Xu ,&nbsp;Honghuan Cui ,&nbsp;Hongyan Guo ,&nbsp;Chen Zhang ,&nbsp;Weijiang Xu ,&nbsp;Huizhen Wu ,&nbsp;Hang Bai ,&nbsp;Song Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104765","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104765","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study focuses on asphalt pavements of highways in Northwest Hebei, and prepares a composite salt-storage material (using sodium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium acetate, and magnesium acetate as snow-melting salts, with boron mud and zeolite as carriers). This material was partially or fully substituted for the mineral powder in asphalt mixtures at varying dosages to systematically investigate its effects on the freeze-thaw splitting strength and controlled-release performance. The results show that through orthogonal experiments, the optimal ratio of the salt-storage carrier (boron mud: zeolite = 1:3) and snow-melting salts (NaCl:CaCl₂:CH₃COONa:Mg(CH₃COO)₂·4H₂O = 2:2:3:1) was determined, achieving the highest ice-melting amount and suitability for the geological conditions of Northwest Hebei. The residual freeze-thaw splitting strength ratio decreased with increasing salt storage content, but still met the requirements of the Test Methods of Bitumen and Bituminous Mixtures for Highway Engineering (JTG E20—2011). The Richards growth model was used to describe the controlled-release characteristics of salt in the composite salt-storage material within asphalt mixtures, with conductivity changes in the solution fitted by the model and divided into three stages (initiation, rapid growth, and saturation). As the composite salt-storage content increased, the salt release rate parameter b decreased, the shape parameter c increased, and the controlled-release time difference Δt extended, indicating a longer salt release time and improved controlled-release performance. Finally, through dynamic balance analysis between mechanical stability and controlled-release performance, the optimal replacement rate range for the composite salt-storage material was recommended to be controlled at 50 %–70 %. Future research should focus on optimizing the impact of the material on asphalt mixture performance and conducting field tests to enhance the applicability of these results in Northwest Hebei.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104765"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145576639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mechanical characteristics and constitutive elastic damage modelling of warm frozen silty sand with different moisture contents","authors":"Hongbo Zhang ,&nbsp;Weixing Bao ,&nbsp;Jie Li ,&nbsp;Puerhaiti Ainiwaer ,&nbsp;Xiaodong Li ,&nbsp;Cheng Yuan ,&nbsp;Xiaolin Guan","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104756","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104756","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aims to evaluate the mechanisms of mechanical property changes and the internal damage deformation mechanism of warm permafrost under conditions with moisture contents ranging from ultra-high (25 % and 50 %) to low (8 % and 13.3 %). Triaxial compression tests were performed under three characteristic moisture content conditions at −0.3 °C, −0.7 °C, and − 1.2 °C, and at the confining pressures of 0.05 MPa, 0.15 MPa, and 0.3 MPa. The test results showed that the samples' moisture contents of 8 % and 13.3 % (saturation) exhibited strain-softening behaviour, with the 8 % moisture content samples demonstrating more pronounced strain-softening effects. The 25 % and 50 % moisture content samples displayed strain-hardening behaviour and exhibited the characteristic of the initial modulus rapidly dropping to a lower stable value, while the strength and residual strength for each moisture content showed a linear increase with decreasing temperature and increasing confining pressure. Variations in initial moisture content and dry density affected the internal bonding structure and skeletal framework of warm permafrost, and the internal bonding structure and skeletal composition determined the upper and lower strength limits, respectively. The impacts of temperature, confining pressure, and initial moisture content on modulus varied considerably. As the initial moisture content increased, warm permafrost transitioned from brittle shear to plastic bulging failure. In addition, the structural properties, deformation behaviour, and failure mechanisms of warm permafrost varied considerably with changes in the moisture content. Confining pressure and temperature influenced the mechanical damage, deformation, and failure behaviour of warm permafrost through distinct mechanisms. A more versatile nonlinear elastic damage model was developed based on the specific damage-deformation characteristics of warm permafrost. The prediction model yielded results that agreed closely with the experimental data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104756"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145576707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Study on the effects of temperature fluctuations in the seasonal frozen regions on the axial force and deformation of steel support structures in deep foundation pits","authors":"Yiru Hu,&nbsp;Xianzhang Ling","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104697","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104697","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study addresses the critical knowledge gap in understanding the complex mechanical behavior of steel support structures in deep foundation pits subjected to freeze-thaw cycles and temperature fluctuations in seasonal frozen regions, where existing design methods inadequately account for frost heave and thermal effects. Through comprehensive field monitoring and theoretical analysis of pile-anchor-steel support systems, this research reveals the significant temperature-induced effects on structural performance and develops innovative calculation methods for engineering applications. Systematic long-term monitoring demonstrates that steel support axial forces exhibit distinct three-stage evolution characteristics within the temperature range of −25.5 °C to 25.5 °C: an initial fluctuation stage with periodic minor responses, a rapid growth stage during frost heave intensification, and an attenuation-rebound stage during spring thawing. During the rapid growth stage, SSP1 increased from 249.62 kN to 335.56 kN, SSP2 from 275.09 kN to 549.56 kN, while SSP3 decreased from 931.1 kN to 874.69 kN, with the maximum sudden change amplitude reaching 39.47 % and other supports experiencing changes ranging from 10.62 % to 26.48 %. The spring thawing period resulted in maximum axial force attenuation amplitude of 98.73 %, indicating significant soil structure reconstruction effects. Based on five-element deformation coordination theory involving steel supports, support piles, soil behind piles, prestressed anchor cables, and waist beams, a novel stress analysis model considering frost heave and temperature effects was established using elastic resistance method. The model innovatively simplifies the complex multi-element system by representing soil behind piles, support piles, and prestressed anchor cables as three parallel springs. Comprehensive model validation against field measurements across two typical temperature variation periods shows theoretical calculations differ from measured values by only 2.84 %–18.84 % under various temperature conditions, demonstrating excellent computational accuracy and engineering applicability. The proposed simplified calculation method provides engineers with an effective tool for quantitative analysis of temperature stress in multiple steel supports, significantly improving design efficiency and safety. These research outcomes fill the theoretical gap in deep foundation pit support systems for cold regions and provide essential scientific foundation for technical specifications and safe underground space development in seasonal frozen regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104697"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145360741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Study of supercooling phenomena in soil-water systems based on nucleation theory: quantifying supercooling duration","authors":"Kunyu Li ,&nbsp;Chong Wang ,&nbsp;Ying Lai ,&nbsp;Jiaqi Tian ,&nbsp;Fanshuo Meng ,&nbsp;Junping Ren ,&nbsp;Shuangyang Li","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104753","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104753","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Controlling soil freezing in cold regions can mitigate engineering problems caused by freezing-thawing cycles. The challenge lies in predicting the duration of soil supercooling and determining its limiting temperature. Based on the thermodynamic and crystallization dynamics methods, we constructed a theoretical model to estimate the duration of soil supercooling by analyzing phase changes and energy evolution during the supercooling process. We also explored and designed a comprehensive scheme for controlling soil supercooling and freezing. The following conclusions were obtained: the validity of the proposed theoretical model (RMSE≈0.011 h, MAPE≈2.14 %, R² ≈ 0.98) was confirmed using the soil freezing observation test data carried out by several groups of scholars under different conditions. The supercooling process can be divided into two phases: “cooling” and “recovery”. Usually, the recovery phase is very short and can be neglected in saline and clay soils. Within the scope of common operating conditions, sensitivities to the supercooling duration, in descending order, are pore radius, salinity, pore ratio and pore saturation. Supercooling duration is inversely proportional to pore size and directly proportional to pore ratio and saturation. Increasing soil porosity and saturation while decreasing soil pore radius significantly enhances soil supercooling properties. However, to prevent frost heave, saturation should not exceed 0.9. In areas with high salinity or non-saline areas, maintaining consistent local salinity helps preserve soil supercooling properties. In salinized soils, replacing non-saline soils at appropriate project depths can optimize supercooling and reduce the risk of salt expansion related issues.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104753"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145517195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cold-region tunnel lining defect segmentation based on UNet-transformer with multi-level feature fusion","authors":"Minjie Qiao ,&nbsp;Qixiang Yan ,&nbsp;Xinghong Chen ,&nbsp;Chuan Zhang ,&nbsp;Xiaolong Liao ,&nbsp;Hongliang Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104769","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104769","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cold-region tunnels are highly susceptible to frost damage in linings, typically manifested as surface defects like cracks, spalling, water leakage, and icicles. Timely and accurate detection of these defects is essential for formulating effective maintenance strategies. However, these defects usually present complex morphological characteristics and multiscale features, leading to the inadequacy of traditional methods for precise detection. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel image segmentation method, MFE-UNetFormer, which combines an enhanced UNet backbone, a Transformer module, and a Multi-level Feature Fusion module. This integration potentially promotes synergy among the three modules, enabling them to compensate for each other's limitations and fully leverage their respective strengths. To evaluate the proposed method, a cold-region tunnel lining defect dataset was built by collecting on-site defect images from tunnels in western and northern China. The MFE-UNetFormer was systematically trained, validated, and tested on this dataset. For performance evaluation, it was compared with five state-of-the-art models, including UNet, ViT, DeepLabV3+, SCTNet, and SegNeXt. The experimental results demonstrated that the MFE-UNetFormer achieved a mIoU of 85.97 % and significantly outperformed other advanced models across all assessment metrics. Furthermore, ablation studies illustrated the unique contributions of each proposed module. More importantly, based on the Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping++, this study comprehensively revealed the detection mechanism for thin object defects. In summary, the proposed method was well demonstrated to be effective and superior in addressing the challenges of multiscale defect detection in cold-region tunnels</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104769"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145614702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Experimental investigation of wave-forced heat convection across water-permafrost boundaries","authors":"Olorunfemi Omonigbehin ,&nbsp;Hatim Ben Said ,&nbsp;Jacob Stolle ,&nbsp;Pierre Francus ,&nbsp;Barret L. Kurylyk ,&nbsp;Julia A. Guimond ,&nbsp;David Didier ,&nbsp;Stéphanie Coulombe ,&nbsp;Nils Goseberg","doi":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104718","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104718","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Arctic permafrost coastlines are retreating faster as climate warming intensifies. Accurate modelling of the thermomechanical process is hindered by a lack of direct measurement of heat flux or heat transfer coefficients (<span><math><msub><mi>h</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></math></span>) at the water-permafrost interface. This study presents the first, direct laboratory measurements of wave-induced convective heat transfer coefficients. In twelve wave-flume experiments, artificial permafrost samples were exposed to air, still water, and irregular waves (0.02–0.04 m height; 0.8–1.2 s period). Embedded resistance temperature detectors tracked temperature changes at high spatial and temporal resolution, allowing for precise heat flux and heat transfer coefficient calculations. Under wave action, thaw-front advanced rapidly into the permafrost blocks at about 160–350 mmh⁻¹ compared to 3.24 mmh⁻¹ in air and 50.14 mmh⁻¹ in still water. Similarly, heat transfer coefficient ranged from 459 to 1210 Wm⁻² K⁻¹ in wave tests, significantly exceeding those for still water (∼165 Wm⁻² K⁻¹) and air exposure (∼4.4 Wm⁻² K⁻¹) tests. Heat flux correlated most strongly with wave height; higher ice content slowed thawing but did not evidently affect <span><math><msub><mi>h</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></math></span> magnitude. A novel empirical model was developed that pioneers the linking of <span><math><msub><mi>h</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></math></span> to surf similarity and dimensionless wave height and period. With strong predictive performance (R² = 0.89, RMSE = 81.1 Wm⁻² K⁻¹), the model provides a practical, experimentally validated tool for specifying <span><math><msub><mi>h</mi><mi>w</mi></msub></math></span> in coastal permafrost erosion models, eliminating the reliance on parameter tuning required by previous analytical approaches. Overall, this study demonstrates the critical role of waves in heat delivery to permafrost coastlines.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10522,"journal":{"name":"Cold Regions Science and Technology","volume":"242 ","pages":"Article 104718"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145323540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}