Experimental Studies of Soil Frost Heaving Pressure Development in Confined Space

Abstract This article describes the results of experimental studies of the frost heaving pressure development at the soil freezing in confined space. Studies devoted to the investigation of heaving soil influence on the structures acquire special significance at present due to the intensive development of the North and North-East regions of Russia. The conducted researches made it possible to reveal the features of the development of frost heaving pressure of clay and sandy soils under one-sided and uniform freezing in confined space, depending on the degree of their water saturation, temperature regime and possible deformations. It was revealed that in sandy soils the formation of the frost heaving pressure is caused by the freezing of free (gravitational) water and can be determined by the Bridgman-Tammann formula. In clay soils, the development of frost heaving pressure is associated with the freezing of loosely-bound (film) water and can be determined by the method proposed by the authors both in the absence and in the presence of heaving volumetric deformation.