Strength of frozen saline soils

Abstract

This paper summarizes an extensive laboratory program undertaken to study the influence of soil type, temperature, and salinity on the strength of three different frozen soils under conditions of unconfined constant strain rate tests. Since the effects of temperature and salinity can be unified by studying the variation of unfrozen water content, measurements of unfrozen water at different temperatures were carried out using the time-domain reflectometry (TDR) method. The stress–strain behavior is influenced by the presence of fine particles in the soil, and an increase in temperature and salinity (unfrozen water content) causes a significant loss of strength. For each soil tested, a predictive model of its strength in terms of salinity and temperature (unfrozen water content) is presented. Key words : frozen soil, saline, unfrozen water, strength.