Influence of freezing directions on ice lens formations in soils

Abstract

AbstractThis research work presents a comprehensive experimental study of frost heave in a fine-grained material to investigate the effects of top freezing (TF) and bottom freezing (BF) mechanisms with ice lens formation. A novel test device was built to investigate artificial ground freezing (AGF)-related temperature and load boundary conditions. This paper includes 62 frost heave experiments and test observations up to 10 days. The long test duration allows a precise examination of ice lens growth during thermal steady state when the frost line remains largely stable and the ice lens grows. This state corresponds to the holding phase of a practical in situ AGF implementation where the cooling is used to maintain the frozen body thickness. The freezing observations show that BF heaving is larger than TF heaving in most cases. This is caused by the more favorable hydraulic conditions caused by gravitational effects and vertical cracking that occurs during ice lens formation due to suction. This facilitates water accumulation at the ice lens. An applied load reduces the differences between BF and TF conditions beyond a certain value which corresponds to an overburden capable of preventing the formation of the longitudinal cracks.