Permafrost thawing from different technical systems in Arctic regions

A new three-dimensional model of thermal interaction in a "heat source-and-soil" system is proposed to study the process of permafrost degradation from various engineering facilities operating in the Arctic regions, taking into account a number of physical and climatic factors that affect the heat distribution. On the base of the proposed model, a software complex was developed to predict long-term dynamics of permafrost thawing in the upper layer of soil, and this approach was used in the design of 11 northern Russian oil and gas fields and is in a good agreement with numerical rezults and experimental data. Numerical calculations are presented for illustration the possibility of carrying out long-term forecasts for the determination of permafrost zone defrosting during operation of production wells in northern oil and gas field.