Dynamic Response of Saturated Soil to Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity Impacts Under the Moore‒Gibson‒Thompson Thermoelastic Model

This research aims to utilize the Moore–Gibson–Thompson model of thermoelastic propagation to analyze a thermodynamic
problem within a half-space medium subjected to a time-harmonic load. While fractional-order and Green–Naghditype
models have been applied to anisotropic soils, to our knowledge, no study has systematically examined the effect of
both frequency and anisotropic thermal conduction under the MGT framework. We investigate how anisotropy in thermal
conductivity and frequency affects the thermal-mechanical response of an anisotropic, fully saturated subgrade using the
normal mode method. This approach accelerates the decoupling process and eliminates the need for integration and inverse
transformation, thereby simplifying the constraints of numerical inverse transformation. A graphical representation illustrates
the relationships among crucial physical variables, including perpendicular displacement, pore water pressure, vertical
stress, and temperature distribution. The findings presented can advance geotechnical engineering, especially regarding
varying load frequencies and thermal conduction anisotropy coefficients. This will significantly enhance subgrade stability
and encourage theoretical research on thermal-hydraulic-mechanical coupling. Furthermore, soil heat transfer, chiefly
dependent on thermal conductivity, plays a vital role in numerous practical applications, from groundwater access and
ground-source heat pump utilization to heat storage in soil.