Influences of ambient temperature on temperature field and mechanical behaviors of underground pipe galleries

Seasonal temperature changes in the seasonal frozen areas have a significant impact on the engineering application performance of the underground pipe galleries. To study the effects of ambient temperature in the seasonal frozen areas on the temperature field and mechanical behaviors of the underground pipe galleries, the change laws of temperature field and earth pressure of the underground pipeline galleries under seasonal ambient temperature are studied by conducting the ABAQUS finite element numerical simulation. The numerical analysis results indicate that the occurent moment of the maximum freezing depth of the vertical section inside the pipe gallery is lagged behind that of the lowest ambient temperature. During the process of heating and cooling, the temperature fields inside the upper and nearby areas of the pipe gallery successively exhibit the special phenomena such as "cold core zone" and "hot core zone". These phenomena gradually disappear with the continuous effects of heating and cooling. During the cooling and heating processes, the earth pressure on the roof of the pipe gallery shows an increasing and decreasing tendency. After the influences of seasonal temperature, the earth pressure on the roof is significantly greater than that at the initial state.