Field frost heave measurement and prediction during periods of seasonal frost

Abstract

Frost heave measurements were taken over two winter seasons on a clay loam soil located near Ottawa, Canada. Heaving was measured using linear displacement transducers attached to a metal frame that was anchored in the soil below the depth of frost penetration. The output of the displacement transducer was recorded hourly using a microcomputer-based data logger. The system functioned reliably and the observed data compared well with published measurements.Soil temperature was recorded simultaneously using thermocouples. Time-domain reflectometry was used to measure the unfrozen water content. The study shows that soil temperature measurements can be used to estimate the temperature gradient at the freezing front for determining the cumulative frost heave, as suggested by the Konrad–Morgenstern theory of ice segregation processes. Key words: frost heave, temperature, gradient, displacement transducer, segregational potential.