Abstract：The construction of Qinghai—Tibet Railway in permafrost regions is mainly confronted with three frozen soil problems，i.e. the thaw settlement，frost heaving and unfavorable features related to frozen ground. Among which the thaw settlement is a main reason for embankment deformation and destruction. Therefore，it is the chief problem to resolve in the engineering design for railway embankment due to the unique natural conditions on the Qinghai—Tibet Plateau. Furthermore，under the condition of global warming，in addition of keeping the landform，terrain and hydrological conditions of permafrost regions，the design should be initiated from railway embankment structure itself to create a proper condition beneficial for permafrost existence or development. To solve embankment stability problem in high temperature and high ice content area after the railway construction，a kind of positive measure to protect permafrost，i. e. air-cooling embankment with rubble slope protection，was designed to control ground temperature field in case of embankment deformation caused by permafrost thawing. Hence，experimental project，air cooling embankment with rubble slope protection and common embankment were designed and conducted in Qingshuihe，a field test section of high-temperature fine grain frozen soil region along Qinghai—Tibet Railway. Based on monitoring data of ground temperatures and settlement for three sections after two freezing-thawing cycles，the ground temperature，accumulated temperature，maximum thawing depth variation and deformation feature of these two kinds of embankments were analyzed comparatively. It was shown that the air-cooling embankment with rubble slope protection showed a better effect on decreasing ground temperature，lowing minor accumulated temperature，elevating the maximum thawing depth evidently and reducing settlement than those of common embankment. Therefore，the air-cooling embankment with rubble slope protection，as a kind of conveniently and widely used construction measure，was a positive frozen soil protection measure for its effectively decreasing ground temperature and protecting permafrost.
