Study on strength of artificially frozen soils in deep alluvium

This paper describes a series of stress-controlled uniaxial compressive tests performed on frozen loess and triaxial compressive tests performed on frozen/unfrozen loess, which experienced K0 consolidated process before freezing, to study the stress–strain–strength behaviour of an artificially frozen soil in deep alluvium. The aim of subjecting the triaxial test samples to K0 consolidation was to simulate the forming process of deep soils. These tests examined the influence of the initial confining pressure and the temperature of frozen soils on stress–strain–strength behaviour. An analysis of the mechanical behaviour of artificially frozen soil is performed from interpretation of results from the unconfined and triaxial compressive tests of frozen/unfrozen soils, in which the influence of both the degree of cementation arising from the interparticle bonding and the initial confining stress was investigated. For deep artificially frozen soils, it was concluded that the unconfined compressive strength is a direct measurement of the degree of cementation. Consequently, the triaxial compressive strength can be expressed as a function of only two variables: (1) the internal angle of the shearing resistance of the unfrozen soils; and (2) the unconfined compressive strength. Data from additional experiments performed later verified the validity of proposed relationship in evaluating the strength of deep artificially frozen soil.