Evolutions of the unfrozen water content of saturated sandstones during freezing process and the freeze-induced damage characteristics

Abstract

The precise determination of unfrozen water content is of great significance to understand the freezing process of pore water and reveal the freeze-induced damage mechanism for frozen rock mass. In this study, low field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) tests were conducted on five types of frozen sandstone samples. The changes in the T2 distribution and unfrozen water content (including unfrozen bound water content and unfrozen movable water content) were obtained and then analyzed. The experimental results indicate that there is little unfrozen movable water exists in the sandstone sample at the temperature of -5 °C and lower, whereas the amount of the unfrozen bound water is slowly decreased during the freezing process. The pore size distribution largely dominates the speed of water-ice phase transition and the total ice volume in the sandstone samples. A larger equivalent average pore radius (rm) leads to a higher speed of water-ice phase transition. The freeze-induced strains of the frozen sandstones were theoretically calculated based on a frost heave model. It is indicated that the freezing strain increases rapidly in the temperature range of 0 °C to -10 °C, while tends to be stable with further decreasing the temperature. Owing to the different pore size distributions, the movable water induces more substantial freezing strain than the bound water in terms of the Wuding sandstone and Linyi sandstone having an rm larger than 1.6 μs. However, it is exactly inverted for the other three sandstones including the Tengchong sandstone, Luzhou sandstone and Zigong sandstone with much smaller rm. The study provides a reasonable method for quantifying the unfrozen water content and freeze-induced strain in frozen rock, as well as important guidance for the design and construction of rock engineering in cold regions.