• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.51-60
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• 2012

In order to characterize the shear strength of the frozen sand for foundation design in cold region and prediction of adfreeze bond strength, many researchers developed test techniques and carried out many tests to analyze shear strength properties of the frozen sand for half a century. However, many studies for shear strength properties of the frozen sand have been carried out with limited circumstances, even though shear strength of the froze sand can be affected by various influence factors such as soil type, temperature conditions, and magnitude of normal stress. In this study, direct shear test equipment was used to analyze the shear strength characteristics of the frozen sand. Direct shear test equipment was designed for cold weather, and the direct shear tests were carried out inside of large-scaled low temperature chamber. Three soil types-two uniform sands and one well graded soil were used to analyze the shear strength of the frozen sand with three different temperature conditions and three different vertical confining pressures. In this research, a series of direct shear tests for shear strength of the frozen sand have been conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of effectiveness of the test equipment and low temperature chamber. This research also showed that shear strength of the froze sand increased with decreasing temperature condition, but the influence of vertical confining pressure was insignificant to the shear strength of the frozen sand.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.5-14
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• 2017

Experimental study on strength characteristics of frozen soils is necessary for the safety evaluation of design and construction in cold region. The objective of this study is to evaluate the direct shear strength of frozen soils obtained from traditional system (Type-1), system with roller on the upper shear box (Type-2), and system with fixed upper shear box separated from bottom shear box (Type-3). Specimens mixed with sand, silt, and water are frozen to $-5^{\circ}C$, and then direct shear tests are conducted under the normal stress of 5, 10, 25, and 50 kPa. Experimental results show that the upper shear box of Type-1 touches the bottom shear box due to the rotation of the upper shear box. The shear strength obtained from Type-2 is overestimated because the preventing rotation force is added to shear force. Type-3 may acquire the only strength of the specimen, and shear strain at peak shear strength is similar to that at the beginning of vertical displacement occurrence. In addition, internal friction angle and cohesion at both peak and residual stresses in Type-3 are smaller than those of Type-2. This study shows that high strength specimens including frozen soils can be effectively evaluated using improved shear box system such as Type-3.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.23-29
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• 2013

The mechanical behavior of frozen soils is different from that of unfrozen soils due to the phase change between water and ice. The strength characteristics of frozen soils are governed by the intrinsic material properties such as grain size, ice and water content, air bubbles, and by externally imposed testing conditions such as temperature, freezing time, and strain rate. Especially, the strength of the frozen soils is generally higher than that of unfrozen soils due to ice binding capacity with soil particles, and is strongly affected by a highly complex interaction between the solid soil skeleton and the pore matrix, composed of ice and unfrozen water. In this study, the direct shear test and unconfined compression test are carried out inside of a large-scaled freezing chamber, and the relationships between cohesion and unconfined compression strength under various freezing temperature conditions are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.5-12
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• 2016

Investigation of in-situ ground in cold region is difficult due to low accessibility and environmental factors. In this study, correlation between dynamic cone resistance and shear strength is suggested to estimate the strength of frozen soils by using instrumented dynamic cone penetrometer. Tests were conducted in freezing chamber after preparing sand-silt mixture with 2.3% water content. Vertical stresses of 5 kPa and 10 kPa were applied during freezing, shearing, and penetration phase to compare the dynamic cone resistance and shear strength. The dynamic cone resistance, additionally, is calculated to minimize the effect of energy loss during hammer impact. Experimental results show that as the shear strength increases, the dynamic cone penetration index (DCPI) decreases nonlinearly, while the dynamic cone resistance increases linearly. This study provides the useful correlation to evaluate strength properties of the frozen soils from the dynamic cone penetration and direct shear tests.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2015

The characteristics of frozen soils are one of most important factors for foundation design in cold region. The objective of this study is to evaluate the shear strength and stiffness of frozen soils according to the confining conditions during the freezing and shearing phase. A direct shear box is constructed for the frozen specimens and bender elements are mounted on the wall of the shear box to measure shear wave velocities. Specimens are prepared by mixing sand and silt with a silt fraction of 30% in weight and the degree of saturation of 10%, giving a relative density of 60% for all tests. The temperature of the specimens in the freezer is allowed to fall below -5℃, and then direct shear tests are performed. A series of vertical stresses are applied during the freezing and shearing phase. Shear stress, vertical displacement, and shear wave along the horizontal displacement are measured. Experimental results show that in all the tests, shear strength increases with increasing vertical stress applied during the freezing and shearing phases. The magnitude of the increase in shear strength with increasing vertical stress during shearing under fixed vertical stress in the frozen state is smaller than the magnitude of the increase in vertical stress during freezing and shearing. In addition, the change in shear wave velocities varies with the position of the bender elements. In the case of shear waves passing through the shear plane, the shear wave velocities decrease with increasing horizontal displacement. This study provides an evaluation of the properties of shear strength and stiffness of frozen soils under varied confining condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.13-23
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• 2011

Bearing capacity of pile foundations in cold region is dominated by adfreeze bond strength between surrounding soil and pile perimeter. It denotes that adfreeze bond strength is the most important design parameter for foundations in cold region. Adfreeze bond strength is affected by various factors like 'soil type', 'frozen temperature', 'normal stress acting on soil/pile interface', 'loading rate', 'roughness of pile surface', etc. Several methods have already been proposed to estimate adfreeze bond strength during past 50 years. However, most methods have not considered the effect of normal stress for adfreeze bond strength. In this study, both freezing temperature and normal stress have been controlled as primary factors affecting adfreeze bond strength. A direct shear box was used to measure adfreeze bond strength between sand and aluminum under different temperature conditions. Based on the test results, the relation between shear strength of frozen sand and adfreeze bond strength have been investigated. The test results showed that both of shear strength and adfreeze bond strength tend to increase with decreasing frozen temperature or increasing confining pressure. The ratio of shear strength and adfreeze bond strength, expressed as $r_s$, decreased initially frozen section but increased at much lower frozen temperature and there were uniform intervals under the different normal stress conditions. A method for predicting adfreeze bond strength using $r_s$ has finally been proposed in this study.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1063-1075
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• 2013

The strength of frozen soils is one of the significant design parameters for the construction in frozen ground. The properties of frozen soils should be investigated to understand the strength of frozen soils. The objective of this study is to figure out the characteristics of elastic waves in frozen soils, which reflect the constituent and physical structure of frozen soils in order to provide fundamental information of those according to the degree of saturation. Freezing cell is manufactured to freeze specimens, which are prepared with the degree of saturation of 10%, 40%, and 100%. Piezo disk elements are used as the compressional wave transducers and Bender elements are used as the shear wave transducers. While the temperature of specimens changes from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-10^{\circ}C$, the velocities, resonant frequencies and amplitudes of the compressional and shear waves are investigated based on the elastic wave signatures. Experimental results reveal that the elastic wave velocities increase as the degree of saturation increases. The variation of resonant frequencies coincide with that of elastic wave velocities. A marked discrepancy in amplitudes of compressional and shear waves are observed at the temperature of $0^{\circ}C$. This study renders the basic information of elastic waves in frozen soils according the degree of saturation.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.19-29
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• 2013

Analysis via classical soil mechanics theory is either ineffective or inappropriate for fully describing stress distribution or failure conditions in cold regions, since mechanical properties of soils in cold regions are different from those reported in the classical soil mechanics theory. Therefore, collecting and analyzing technical data, and systematic and specialized research for cold regions are required for design and construction of the structure in cold regions. Freezing and thawing repeat in active layer of permafrost region, and a loading condition affecting the structure changes. Therefore, the reliable analysis of mechanical properties of frozen soils according to various conditions is prerequisite for design and construction of the structure in cold regions, since mechanical properties of frozen soils are sensitive to temperature condition, water content, grain size, relative density, and loading rate. In this research, the direct shear apparatus which operates at 30 degrees below zero and large-scaled low temperature chamber are used for evaluating shear strength characteristics of frozen soils. Weathered granite soil is used to analyzed the shear strength characteristics with varying freezing temperature condition, vertical confining pressure, relative density, and water content. This research shows that the shear strength of weathered granite soil is sensitively affected by various conditions such as freezing temperature conditions, normal stresses, relative densities, and water contents.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.43-51
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• 2015

In seasonal frozen areas which have a temperature difference in the winter and spring season like south korea, if stiffness reduction by repeated freezing and thawing occurs to slopes adjacent to private facilities or mountain slopes, safety factor is insufficient to design criteria and landslide could be occurs due to rainfall or snowfall. It can lead to large damage of human life and property. In this study, in order to examine the safety changes of mountain slopes by repeated freezing and thawing, soil samples series of SP and SM by USCS distributed in surface soil of mountain slopes were collected for specimens. Through the direct shear test, the characterestics of frozen soil shear strength were analyzed and by utilizing numerical methods, chracteristics of strength reduction of weathered granite soil according to repeated action of freezing and thawing, changes in the stability of the slopes when applying freezing and thawing of the soil samples were examined. As a result, the maximum shear stress decreased approximately 10%, and slope stability analysis confirmed that required safety factor is less than compare with the non-frozen samples.