Interface Model of Soil Freezing and Thawing for Use in Discontinuous Permafrost Hydrological Modelling

摘要

A physically-based interface model of active layer evolution and permafrost thaw is presented. This computationally efficient, semi-analytical, non-equilibrium solution to soil the freeze-thaw problem is proposed as a component of hydrological models to describe seasonal ground ice, active layer, and permafrost evolution. The model is developed and validated against the Neumann solution and a benchmarked numerical model. Unlike similar semi-analytic models, the interface model does not assume a linear temperature profile. The model is implemented for use in discontinuous permafrost peatlands where soil properties are highly dependent on soil ice content. It is demonstrated that the model is suitable for the representation of active layer and permafrost evolution for one representative year of data. Future applications of the model are proposed such as the simulation of the formation and evolution of taliks (perennially thawed soil in permafrost environments), the stability of permafrost, and many others.