Calculation of frozen wall thickness considering the non-uniform distribution of the strength properties

Abstract

The static design of artificial ground freezing during the construction of mine shafts includes the strength analysis of the frozen wall (FW). The existing formulas for FW strength calculation do not take into account the non-uniform distribution of strength properties in the volume of frozen soils. The non-uniform distribution of the properties is caused, first of all, by the non-uniform temperature distribution inside the FW. This article shows the significance of this factor in analyzing the FW thickness. The elastic-plastic stress analysis was carried out under the assumption of an infinite height of the thick-walled cylinder consisting of frozen soil. An integral function was obtained to calculate the FW thickness by strength given the arbitrary radial non-uniformity of the cohesion in the frozen soil volume. Also, an approximate formula is proposed for calculating the FW thickness in the case of a piecewise linear cohesion function of the radial coordinate.