Engineering in the Subarctic
Engineering in the Subarctic
(OP)
Has anyone read Helser's "Engineering in the Subarctic Environment"? It is out of print on Amazon.
I am looking for resources (books or online courses) that discuss the particular environmental considerations related to structural and civil engineering in the arctic and subarctic. The orientation is required to obtain a license in the territories.
A discussion of the concepts involved would be fine too. Some that come to mind include:
1. thermal expansion and contraction
2. wind loads
3. subsidence due to foundation heat transfer to permafrost.
4. construction scheduling and staging due to seasonal daylight and weather conditions.
5. ice loads from moisture flow and vapor diffusion from conditioned spaces
6. snow drift loads
7. connection detailing to accommodate insulation
8. steel selection due to extreme cold
Thanks all in advance.
I am looking for resources (books or online courses) that discuss the particular environmental considerations related to structural and civil engineering in the arctic and subarctic. The orientation is required to obtain a license in the territories.
A discussion of the concepts involved would be fine too. Some that come to mind include:
1. thermal expansion and contraction
2. wind loads
3. subsidence due to foundation heat transfer to permafrost.
4. construction scheduling and staging due to seasonal daylight and weather conditions.
5. ice loads from moisture flow and vapor diffusion from conditioned spaces
6. snow drift loads
7. connection detailing to accommodate insulation
8. steel selection due to extreme cold
Thanks all in advance.






RE: Engineering in the Subarctic
Look for the US Army Technical Manuals begginning with TM 5-852. You can find them at the bottom of this page: http://armypubs.army.mil/eng/index.html
Your biggest impacts tend to be thermal considerations. You're either on permafrost or at a significant frost depth, both of which heavily influence your foundation strategies and how you approach underground utilities. Heave often just has to be allowed for on some low cost installations.
There's also a band along the top of some of the provinces where you get the very low temperatures in the winter along with very high temperatures in the summer. You can get some extreme thermal deformations and loads in those cases.
I haven't done a huge amount of it, but some basic things become more complicated than you'd expect. Curing concrete in extreme temperatures is not great, you need low temperature steels in some cases, everything vaguely liquid will likely try to freeze, icing loads...