Temperature Dependence of Unfrozen Water Quantity in Clay Soil with Different Moisture Content

Abstract We have investigated the relationship between the unfrozen quantity and total moisture content in clay soils in hygroscopic humidity region. To determine the unfrozen water quantity the method of continuous heat supply has been used (calorimetric method). Because crystallization heat of hygroscopic water in soil and that of volume water and different, the crystallization heat of soil water has been determined first during the experiment as a function of moisture and temperature, then it has been used to calculate the quantity of unfrozen water. It has been found that the dependence of unfrozen water quantity on total moisture content is more pronounced at low ice content and is not evident at all when it increases. In this case the dependence of unfrozen water quantity on total moisture content is of more complex pattern than that of the kind at high humidity. Besides the dependence is moistly evident at low ice content and becomes extinct at ice content increasing.