Monitoring the Soil Freeze-Thaw Process Using Piezoceramic-Based Smart Aggregate
Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 28, Issue 2
Abstract
Monitoring the soil freeze-thaw process is of great importance to engineering design of infrastructure, observation of hydrology, variation of climate, and existence of vegetation in cold regions. This paper presents experimental results to describe the soil freeze-thaw process using piezoceramic-based smart aggregate (SA) transducers. Two SAs are embedded in predetermined locations: one is used as the actuator and the other is used as a sensor. The active-sensing method is applied to excite a stress wave propagating between the two SAs. The alteration of the mechanical properties of the soil during the freeze-thaw process has an important effect on the stress-wave propagation, and the transition between the freeze and thaw states of the soil is monitored in real time. A wavelet packet-based soil freeze-thaw status indicator is established to quantitatively describe the soil status during the freeze-thaw process. Potentially, this freeze-thaw status indicator can be linked to soil mechanical properties, and therefore the methodology presented here can be used to characterize a partially frozen soil or warm permafrost site.
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Acknowledgments
The reported research was partially based upon work supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) awards (No. 51278387, No. 51278084, and No. 51121005) and National Science Foundation (NSF) award (No. CCSS-CPS1102195). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsor.
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Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 28 • Issue 2 • June 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 31, 2012
Accepted: Jan 24, 2014
Published online: Apr 8, 2014
Published in print: Jun 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Sep 8, 2014
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