FROM FOREIGN EXPERIENCE

E N G I N E E R I N G P E R M A F R O S T O L O G Y IN T H E S E R V I C E O F

S O C I A L I S T C O N S T R U C T I O N tN T H E M O N G O L I A N P E O P L E ' S

R E P U B L I C (ON T H E 5 0 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y OF T H E

MONGOLIAN PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC)

V. F . Z h u k o v UDC624.139.2

Fifty y e a r s ago, the people of Mongolia, led by Suhe-Bator and his c o m r a d e s - i n - a r m s , founded the Mongolian People ' s republ ic , with the bro ther ly support of Soviet Russia .

Under the guidance of the People ' s Revolut ionary Par ty , the people of Mongolia, in half a century of unstinted labor , h a v e t r a n s f o r m e d the backward feudal Mongolia into a soc ia l i s t ag ra r i an - indus t r i a l s ta te with a developed economy and civil ization.

Mongolia now has var ious industr ia l e n t e r p r i s e s , coal mines , organized production of oil and many other mine ra l s , a tong ra i l road connecting it with the USSR, s tate f a r m s , and catt le husbandry. Living quar te r s and cul tural s e rv i ce s a re built on a large scale .

In this vast construct ion p r o g r a m , the Mongolian Republic is a s s i s t ed by the Soviet Union and other soc ia l i s t countr ies .

Many s t ruc tu res have been e rec ted under the complex and unfamil iar na tura l conditions pecul ia r to Mongolia: a marked ly continental c l imate with a r igorous winter and deep season f reez ing of the ground; p e r m a f r o s t conditions over a lmos t 1/3 of the a rea , with n e a r - z e r o t empe ra tu r e s and unstable for that r e a - son; and the development of cryogenic phenomena, ground ice and heaving, etc. As a consequence, there a re many complex p rob lems in construct ion operat ions in Mongolia, pa r t i cu la r ly in connection with design- ing and emplac ing the foundations and basemen t s .

The ra i l road bui lders had many encounters with p e r m a f r o s t . P e r m a f r o s t conditions were encoun- tered in the Nalaikha coal deposi ts , forcing the Kuzbasgiproshakht (Kuznetsk Basin State Institute of Mining Design) to design foundations of the Nala ikha-Kapi ta l 'naya shaft with venti lated ce l l a r s to maintain p e r m a - f ros t conditions for the ground. These construct ions a re unique in thei r location in the ex t r eme south of p e r m a f r o s t development in the nor thern hemisphe re .

There a re many ins tances of different approaches to the foundations and subs t ruc tu res for buildings and s t ruc tures throughout Mongolia where recommendat ions and regulat ions set for th by engineer ing p e r m a - f ros to logis t s have played a significant ro le .

The las t 15 yea r s have wi tnessed the creat ion of nat ive Mongolian cadres of pe rmaf ros to log i s t s . A group of them have been working in the Mongolian Academy of Sciences since 1957, the Institute of Geogra- phy and Pe rmaf ros to l egy . The Chair of Pe rmaf ros to logy at the Geology Depar tment of Moscow Universi ty , as well as the Institute of Foundations Resea r ch and other organizat ions lend sys t ema t i c a s s i s t ance in the t raining of the Mongolian pe rmaf ros to log i s t s and in ra i s ing their qualification.

Ar t ic les of N. Lonjid, D. Luvsandagawa, and o ther Mongolian sc ient i s t s have appeared in the l i t e ra - ture on p e r m a f r o s t . A group of Mongolian pe rmaf ros to log i s t s is studying the dynamics of t e m p e r a t u r e in the upper layer of the Ear th and the seasonal f reezing- thawing. These studies have detailed the data on ground f reezing in various regions of Mongolia. A new map of p e r m a f r o s t and seasona l ground f r eeze has been drawn fo r Mongolia.

Trans la ted f rom Osnovaniya, Fundamenty i Mekhanika Gruntov, No. 3, pp. 35-36, May-June, 1971.

© 1971 Consultants Bureau,, a division of Plenum Publishing Corporation, 227 West 17th Street, New York, N. Y. I0011. All rights reserved. This article cannot be reproduced for any purpose whatsoever without permission of the publisher. A copy of this article is available [rom the publisher for $15.00.

218

A continuous expanse of permafrost grounds is found in the highlands of northern Mongolia, at eleva- tions oyez" 2,000 m above sea level. The depth of freezing is 50 m and more, especially on the north slopes. In the valleys, the permafrost grounds occur in islands in swampy areas of low permeability.

The seasonal freezing is 5.0-5.5 m deep in fairly dry grounds and 2.5-4.5 m in moist grounds with a high water table. According to the most recent and more accurate data, seasonal freezing is not as deep as formerly believed. This makes it possible to reduce the depth and cost of foundations.

A study has been made of ground ice, a common phenomenon in Mongolia, hampering overland trans- portation; and also of the various cryogenic phenomena and their effect on economic activity.

Of particular interest is Lonjid's introduction into the national economy of an achievement in engineer- ing permafrostology: ice storage devised by- M. M. Krylov. Following a study of ice storage construction in the USSR, Lonjid applied this technique to the native Mongolian conditions. The first ice-storage houses with a capacity of 500-i,000 tons were built under his supervision for winter storage of meat.

ice making under Mongolian conditions is somewhat different from that in the USSR where ice forms at air temperatures below -5°C. In Mongolia, where solar radiation is high, ice forms in daytime only at air temperatures below-15°C.

ha the recent decade, a Mongolian Construction Research Institute has been organized. Its field of ac- tivity includes the study of grounds as foundations. The problem of substructures in permafrost grounds occupies an important place in this joint research.

With the experience and methods of study of grounds and foundations in the USSR for a starting point, the Mongolian Construction Research Institute is studying the swelling properties of Mongolian grounds with their low moisture content in the upper layer, a mobile water lev.el, high rate of seasonal freezing, and the heating effect of buildings on the foundation grounds.

A number of standing buildings of Ulan-Bator affected by the ground swelling have been inspected. Experimental areas have been set up for observations of surface buckling and pile loosening, and for inves- tigating the feasibility and technique of pile driving into grounds with a high content of coarse clastic mate- rial. These investigations are directed by L. Badgai. Their results will have an extensive application in construction practice.

The existing Unified Technical Specifications for buildings and industrial structures of Mongolia, now in the process of revision, already reflect the early results of scientific work in the field of engineer- ing permafrostology.

The development of this discipline, in conjunction with the general study of physico-geographic condi- tions of Mongolia, is of day-to-day assistance to the industry, thereby speeding up the building of socialism in the Mongolian People's Republic.

219