Abstract
The focus of this paper was directed towards investigating the influence of multiple freeze–thaw (FT) cycles on the mechanical behaviors of an expansive soil under a wide range of confining stresses (σc) from 0 to 300 kPa. Consolidated undrained (CU) shear tests with pore pressure measurement (σc = 10–300 kPa) and unconfined compression (UC) tests (σc = 0 kPa) were conducted on FT impact specimens to derive the shearing stress–strain relationships and the associated mechanical properties including (i) failure strength (qu), elastic modulus (Eu), effective and apparent cohesion (c′ and c), and effective and apparent friction angle (ϕ′ and ϕ) obtained from CU tests and (ii) qu and reloading modulus (E1%) and stress (Su1%) at 1% strain obtained from UC tests. Besides, the influence of FT cycles on the soil structure was investigated using mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) tests. Testing results show that FT cycles mainly influence the soil’s macropores with diameters between 5 and 250 μ. Cracks develop during FT cycles and result in slight swelling which contributes to an increase in the global volume of the soil specimens. There is a significant reduction in the investigated mechanical properties after FT cycles. They typically achieve equilibrium after about six cycles. The shearing stress–strain curves transit from strain-softening to strain-hardening as the confining stress increases. A simple empirical model is developed to well describe the strain-softening behavior of the stress–strain curves under low confining stresses.
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The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding received from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51779191 and 51809199).
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WZ: supervision, methodology, formal analysis, validation, writing-original draft. ZH: supervision, conceptualization, funding acquisition, project administration, writing-review and editing. GZ: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing-original draft. KF: formal analysis, writing-review and editing. SKV: methodology, writing-review and editing. XW: formal analysis, writing-review and editing.
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Zou, Wl., Han, Z., Zhao, Gt. et al. Effects of cyclic freezing and thawing on the shear behaviors of an expansive soil under a wide range of stress levels. Environ Earth Sci 81, 77 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10190-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10190-6