Deformation behaviour and strength of frozen sand

Abstract

Uniaxial unconfined compression tests were carried out on frozen saturated Ottawa sand containing about 20% by weight of water, at temperatures between −2 and − 15°C, and at strain rates varying between 10−7 and 10−2 s−1. The compressive strength and the initial tangent modulus increased with increasing strain rate and with decreasing temperature. At −2°C, values of strength and modulus were considerably lower than those predicted by linear extrapolation of the values observed at lower temperatures, on a log–log scale. This could be due to the presence of unfrozen water in the samples at −2°C.