The damage caused by freeze-thaw on the durability of infrastructure has been recognized by the majority of researchers, but the research on the quantification and evaluation of freeze-thaw and the damage caused by freeze-thaw is still not conclusive, and there is no uniform standard to judge the freeze-thaw conditions in the actual natural environment, which leads to the present research results are not consistent with the actual action. Nearly 60 years meteorological data of Golmud, Wudaoliang, Tuotuohe, Anduo, Naqu and Lhasa along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway is used to analyse the variation trends of natural environmental freeze-thaw cycles. From these meteorological data statistical analysis, the variation trends of daily minimum temperature, daily maximum temperature, and monthly precipitation were obtained. The conception of cumulative temperature is applied to reflect the temperature effect with its duration of time, and negative temperature duration and positive temperature duration were obtained respectively. The difference between the indoor freeze-thaw cycle test and freeze-thaw effect of actual environment is compared in this research. The variation trends of monthly freeze-thaw cycles, and annual freeze-thaw cycles were analysed, the comparison of freeze-thaw cycles in six regions were carried out to illustrate the difference of natural environmental freeze-thaw cycles along the Qinghai-Tibet highway. Results indicate that the freeze-thaw effect is still the main factor influencing the performance of asphalt pavement in cold regions of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and freeze-thaw should be taken high attention during the pavement design, construction, and maintenance.

CICTP