Thermal-Hydro-Mechanical Analysis of Frost Heave and Thaw Settlement
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 7
Abstract
Frost heave and thaw settlement are the cause of substantial damage to infrastructure in regions of seasonal freezing as well as seasonal thawing (permafrost). While frost heaving of soils has been researched for decades, less attention has been paid to quantitative estimates of settlement and loss of strength of soils due to thawing. A constitutive model is developed, capable of simulating freezing and thawing of soils, and associated changes in the soil strength. While the porosity growth parameters describing frost heaving have been calibrated and validated for a specific soil, the description of the thawing phase has not been validated due to a lack of experimental data. The yielding of the frozen soil is described using the critical state concept, with the pore ice content being an important parameter affecting the yield function. The model was calibrated using available laboratory test data and used in the simulation of a freezing–thawing cycle in the soil with embedded footing.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper was supported by the Army Research Office, Grant No. W911NF-08-1-0376. This support is greatly appreciated.
References
ABAQUS version 6.12 [Computer software]. Providence, RI, Dassault Systèmes Simulia Corporation.
Akagawa, S., and Nishisato, K. (2009). “Tensile strength of frozen soil in the temperature range of the frozen fringe.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 57(1), 13–22.
Alonso, E. E., Gens, A., and Josa, A. (1990). “A constitutive model for partially saturated soils.” Géotechnique, 40(3), 405–430.
Andersland, O. B., and Ladanyi, B. (2004). Frozen ground engineering, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Corapcioglu, M. Y., and Panday, S. (1995). “Multiphase approach to thaw subsidence of unsaturated frozen soils: Equation development.” J. Eng. Mech., 448–459.
Fukuda, M., Kim, H., and Kim, Y. (1997). “Preliminary results of frost heave experiments using standard test sample provided by TC8.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Ground Freezing and Frost Action in Soils, S. Knuttson, ed., Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 25–30.
Han, S. J., and Goodings, D. J. (2006). “Practical model of frost heave in clay.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 92–101.
Hartikainen, J., and Mikkola, M. (1997). “General thermomechanical model of freezing soil with numerical application.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Ground Freezing and Frost Action in Soils, S. Knuttson, ed., Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 101–106.
Henry, K. S., Zhu, M., and Michalowski, R. L. (2005). “Evaluation of three frost heave models.” Proc., 7th Int. Conf. on the Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways and Airfields, Trondheim, Norway.
Kim, K., Zhou, W., and Huang, S. L. (2008). “Frost heave predictions of buried chilled gas pipelines with the effect of permafrost.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 53(3), 382–396.
Konrad, J. M. (1989). “Effect of freeze–thaw cycles on the freezing characteristics of a clayey silt at various overconsolidation ratios.” Can. Geotech. J., 26(2), 217–226.
Konrad, J. M., and Morgenstern, N. R. (1981). “The segregation potential of a frozen soil.” Can. Geotech. J., 18(4), 482–491.
Konrad, J. M., and Morgenstern, N. R. (1982). “Effects of applied pressure on freezing soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 19(4), 494–505.
Lai, Y., Long, J., and Xiaoxiao, C. (2009). “Yield criterion and elasto-plastic damage constitutive model for frozen sandy soil.” Int. J. Plast., 25(6), 1177–1205.
Li, D., Fan, J., and Wang, R. (2011). “Research on visco-elastic-plastic creep model of artificially frozen soil under high confining pressures.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 65(2), 219–225.
Michalowski, R. L. (1993). “A constitutive model of saturated soils for frost heave simulations.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 22(1), 47–63.
Michalowski, R. L., and Zhu, M. (2006). “Frost heave modeling using porosity rate function.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech., 30(8), 703–722.
Miller, R. D. (1978). “Frost heaving in non-colloidal soils.” Proc., Third Int. Conf. on Permafrost, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, 707–713.
Morgenstern, N. R., and Nixon, J. F. (1971). “One-dimensional consolidation of thawing soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 8(4), 558–565.
Neaupane, K. M., and Yamabe, T. (2001). “A fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical nonlinear model for a frozen medium.” Comput. Geotech., 28(8), 613–637.
Nishimura, S., Gens, A., Olivella, S., and Jardine, R. J. (2009). “THM-coupled finite element analysis of frozen soil: Formulation and application.” Géotechnique, 59(3), 159–171.
O’Neill, K, and Miller, R. D. (1982). “Numerical solutions for a rigid ice model of secondary frost heave.” CRREL Tech. Rep. 82-13, Hannover, NH.
Penner, E. (1959). “The mechanism of frost heaving in soils.” Highway Res. Board Bull., 225, 1–13.
Qi, J., Hu, W., and Ma, W. (2010). “Experimental study of a pseudo-preconsolidation pressure in frozen soils.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 60(3), 230–233.
Qi, J., Yao, X., Yu, F., and Liu, Y. (2012). “Study on thaw consolidation of permafrost under roadway embankment.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 81, 48–54.
Re, G. D., Germaine, J. T., and Ladd, C. C. (2003). “Triaxial testing of frozen sand: Equipment and example results.” J. Cold Reg. Eng., 90–118.
Roscoe, K. H., and Burland, J. B. (1968). “On the generalized stress-strain behavior of ‘wet’ clay.” Engineering plasticity, J. Heyman and F. A. Leckie, eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 535–609.
Selvadurai, A. P. S., Hu, J., and Konuk, I. (1999). “Computational modeling of frost heave induced soil-pipeline interaction, II. Modelling of experiments at the Caen test facility.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 29(3), 229–257.
Williams, P. J., and Smith, M. W. (1989). The frozen earth: Fundamentals of geocryology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Wood, M. D. (1990). Soil behavior and critical state soil mechanics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Zhang, Y., and Michalowski, R. L. (2013). “Constitutive model and simulation of non-segregation freezing and thawing in soils.” Proc., 18th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, French Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (CFMS), Paris, 465–468.
Zhao, X., Zhou, G., and Chen, G. (2013). “Triaxial compression strength for artificial frozen clay with thermal gradient.” J. Cent. South Univ., 20(1), 218–225.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 7 • July 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 18, 2014
Accepted: Jan 9, 2015
Published online: Feb 27, 2015
Published in print: Jul 1, 2015
Discussion open until: Jul 27, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.