Mechanical Behaviour of Artificially Frozen Ground: Experimental Observations and Modelling

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The applications of artificial ground freezing in construction cover the formation of frozen earth walls to support deepexcavations, structural underpinning for foundation improvement, and temporary control of ground water. The growingawareness of the merits of artificial ground freezing as a temporary ground improvement system with minimalenvironmental impact is directly related to progress in the understanding of the mechanical behaviour of frozen soils.However, a solid framework has yet to be established for the fully coupled thermo-hydromechanical behaviour offrozen/unfrozen soil and there is need for fundamental research to be carried out on experimental characterisation andconstitutive modelling. The proposed project will develop, set-up and use innovative laboratory equipment to investigateexperimentally the behaviour of soil on freezing and thawing. The project will provide valuable insight into the mechanicalbehaviour of frozen soils, drawing upon multi-disciplinary knowledge at the interface between soil mechanics,thermodynamics, soil physics, material science, and industry. The results will then be carried forward to calibrateconstitutive models and validate existing hypothesis on artificially frozen ground behaviour.