Journal of the Korean Geo-Environmental Society ISSN:1598-0820(Print) 2714-1233(Online) 한국지반환경공학회 논문집

An active layer distributed on surface of an extreme cold region causes a frost heave by repeating the freezing and thawing according to the seasonal temperature change. Since the height of frost heave is greatly affected by the thickness of active layer, an accurate evaluation of the thickness of active layer is necessary for the safe design and construction of the infrastructure in the extreme cold region. In this study, dynamic cone penetrometer, which is miniaturized in-situ penetration device, is applied for the evaluation of active layer depth distribution. As the application tests, two dynamic cone penetration tests were conducted on the study sites located in Solomon and Alaska. In addition, ground temperature variations were obtained. As the results of the application tests, the depth of interface between the active layer and the permafrost was evaluated from the difference in dynamic cone penetration indexes of the active layer and the permafrost, and a layer was detected around the interface considered as an ice lens layer. Also, the interface depths between the above zero and the below zero temperature determined from the ground temperature variations correspond with the interface depths evaluated from the dynamic cone penetration tests. This study demonstrates that the dynamic cone penetrometer may be a useful tool for the evaluation of the active layer in the extreme cold region.