ABSTRACT
Ground supported foundation methods in which ventilation ducts and/or artificial refrigeration are used to maintain the ground thermal regime below 0 °C, and thus protecting the ground from thawing in the summer, are mainly used in the continuous and discontinuous permafrost areas. This paper deals with a theoretical study on whether, and under which circumstances, these foundation methods could be used also in Finnish Lapland where the mean annual temperatures vary in the range of −0…−3 °C. The study was carried out using a FEM program TEMP/W that can be used to model the thermal changes in the ground due to environmental changes or due to construction of facilities such as buildings or pipelines.
