Experimental study on effects of freezing and thawing on mechanical properties of clay

 In order to study the influence of freezing and thawing on mechanical properties of clay,1-D compression tests and consolidation-drained shear tests are carried out on intact soil and the corresponding thawed soil under different freezing and thawing conditions.The experiments show that after freezing and thawing,the coefficient of compressibility is larger than that of the intact soil.The lower the temperature at the freezing end and the larger the water content are,the larger the changes of the compressibility are.There is no effect of the melting temperature on the compressibility of the thawed soil.The freezing and thawing has different influences on the remoulded soil with different original densities,and it will make the compressibility of soils with smaller original densities decrease,while that of the soils with larger original densities increases.After freezing and thawing,the cohesion decreases,and the internal friction angle increases.For the closed freezing and thawing,the lower temperature of the freezing end leads to larger changes in the internal friction angle.The melting temperature has little effect on the strength of the thawed soil.