Dewatering induced by frost heave in a closed system

Eric W. Tiedje, Peijun Guo

In the proceedings of: GEO2011: 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning of Geotechnical Engineering

Session: Climate Change & GeoHazards

ABSTRACT: The formation and growth of segregated lenses during frost heaving has long been demonstrated to lead to redistribution of soil pore water and may play an important role in the freeze-thaw dewatering and consolidation process. The study examines the frost heave process of a closed soil system, i.e. with no external water source. Two closed system step-freezing frost heave tests were conducted on an initially saturated, moderately frost susceptible sandy-silt. The total surface heave, vertical temperature profile, and basal pore pressure in the unfrozen soil were recorded throughout the test along with the final water content in the unfrozen zone. It was observed that the growth of ice lenses lead to substantial decreases in the pore pressure and ultimately dewatering in the unfrozen soil. Furthermore, the lack of external water source was not observed to substantially impede the frost heave rate for the duration examined.

RÉSUMÉ: interstitielle des pores et peut jouer un rôle important dans les procédés de drainage et de consolidation par les cycles de gel/dégel. Cet étude examine le processus de gel dans sol en système fermé, i.e. Suivant ce processus, deux essais de gel ont été menés sur des échantillons de silt-sablonneux modérément gélifs initialement saturés. Le soulèvement total de la surface, les profils de températures ainsi que la pression interstitielle à la base des échantillons (partie non gelée) ont été enregistrées tout au long des tests. La teneur en eau finale a été mesurée dans la partie non gelée à la fin des tests. Il a été observé que la croissance de lentilles de glace a menée à une diminution substantielle de la pression interstitielle et ultimement au drainage de la partie de sol non gelée. De plus,

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