Fundamental research into soil-pipe interaction in permafrost conditions is required to account for environmental loading of pipelines due to thaw settlement and frost heave. RSRead Consulting Inc. has been engaged as a subconsultant in numerical modeling of uplift resistance and associated geomechanical testing of frozen soils. Extensive work using FLAC (Itasca Consulting Group, Inc.) has been undertaken to model the behaviour of a pipe in frozen soil subjected to frost heave. There are similarities in this research and other work on rock shearing effects on containment system integrity conducted by RSRead Consulting Inc. for international nuclear waste management agencies. Further investigation of these commonalities is planned.

Abandoned Haines Pipeline, Alaska