Research On Impact Of Climate On Highway And Climatic Regionalization For Highway

Highway is a kind of man-made structure in natural environment,whoseconstructing and maintaining are impacted by various natural factors.Climate,as anactive natural factor,is widely concerned by highway researchers and participators forits prominent effect on highway.Planning,designing,constructing and maintaining ofhighway should adapt to the local climatic conditions,which is the foundation fornormal life and service level of highway.Thus it is necessary to study the mechanismof impacts of climate on highway and similarities and differences of climaticconditions about highway among regions.Through review related achievements allover the world,this paper summarizedimpact of solar radiations,thermal conditions,moisture conditions and wind onhighway.It is showed that solar radiations,high-temperature process,low-temperatureprocess,freeze-thaw cycle,moisture condition,dry-wet cycle,process of hightemperature with moisture or precipitation,process of freeze-thaw cycle withmoisture or precipitation,extremely low temperature and wind are prominent climaticProcesses and conditions which have notable impacts on highway.Evaluatingindicators for each climatic processes or conditions are built and distributions of someindicators among China are studied through calculations.Using methodology of natural regionalization,this paper studies climaticregionalization for highway,which provides a platform to study similarities anddifferences of climatic conditions about highway among China.Through analysis ofregionalization functions and highway demands,requirements in three levels ofhighway on climatic regionalization are found,which are basic requirements,integrated requirements and macro requirements.According these requirements,skeleton of China climatic regionalization for highway are found,which includesprinciple system,structure of regionalization,methodologies and indicator system.According to structure of China climatic regionalization for highway,purposesof each included regionalization or zoning are defined and regionalizing indicators are selected.Climatic zoning for subgrade,asphalt pavement,PCC pavement andhighway construction and climatic regionalization for highway are finally madethrough methodologies of cluster analysis,division based on indicators and layersuperposing analysis.These zonings and regionalization and contour maps of relatedclimatic indicators,which compose China climatic regionalization for highway,provide references for studying impact of China's climatic conditions on highway andhave guiding significance for practices of highway engineering.