Laboratory study and interpretation of mechanical behavior of frozen clay through state concept

Towards the development of a mechanical model that can be part of multi-physical analysis of frozen soils, a program of systematic frozen-unfrozen parallel triaxial tests at different temperatures and strain rates was conducted. The mechanical behavior of the reconstituted high-plasticity clay samples was investigated and interpreted through a state concept based on Ladanyi and Morel's (1990) postulate on the unique relationship between the inter-particle “effective” stress and the strain path. The Critical State Lines (CSLs) for clay specimens frozen undrained were mapped by referring to the shear behavior of unfrozen specimens sharing the same strain history. With other conditions set identical, the shear strength linearly increased with a decrease in the temperature for the range from −10 °C to −2 °C, and log-linearly increased with an increase in the strain rate for the range from 0.001%/min to 0.1%/min. Direct comparison of the strain-rate effects between frozen and unfrozen specimens with identical strain paths and states in the soil skeleton clearly indicates that the viscoplasticity derives from that of pore ice. A conceptual interpretative framework invoking temperature- and strain rate-dependent state bounding surfaces and CSLs was proposed to describe the behavior of frozen soils under steady and non-steady temperature and strain rate. The above observations of the behavioral features of frozen and unfrozen soils, with further experimental work, are expected to lead to the construction of a unified framework for describing the behavior under both states and the transition between them.