Application investigation of awning to roadway engineering on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

With the rise of the global air temperature and the thawing of the permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), the conditions for engineering, especially roadways, turned from bad to worse. Some techniques were put forward, the awning was one of them, which can protect the permafrost against thaw. Based on indoors models test data combined with numerical calculations, and the air temperature and permafrost temperature data of the test roadbed at Fenghuoshan, the protection effect of awning on the permafrost table along the road and railway construction sites in permafrost regions are compared. The superiority and feasibility of awning was confirmed. Awning can effectively keep off the solar radiation from the surface, it can descend the ground surface temperature by 8 °C–15 °C, maximal up to 24 °C. It can lift the permafrost table significantly and therefore is very important for the roadway safety and smoothness.