Investigation of Salt-Frost Heaving Rules and Mechanical Properties of Chlorite Saline Soil along the Duku Highway under Freezing-Thawing Action

Xuebang Huang,Zezhou Guo,Tiansheng Zhou,Qianli Lv,Zizhao Zhang,Ruihua Hao,Tianchao Liu,Bingxiang Yuan

doi:10.1155/2022/3211197

Abstract

Aiming to investigate salt-frost heaving rules and the mechanical properties of natural saline soil along the Duku Highway subjected to multiple freezing-thawing cycles, we collected natural saline soil samples from the alluvial-proluvial plain in front of the Dushanzi Mountain at the starting point of the Duku Highway. Then, we conducted mineral composition analysis tests, essential laboratory physical property measurement, large scale multiple freezing-thawing cyclic salt-frost heaving tests, shear strength tests, and unconfined compressive strength tests on the samples. According to the test results presented, the collected saline soil differed from saline soil in other regions and fell into “chlorite saline soils.” As the number of freezing-thawing cycles increased, the overall salt-frost heaving capacity increased and then decreased in the freezing process but first reduced and then increased in the thawing process. Thus, the salt-frost heaving capacity was cumulative in freezing/thawing cycles. The peak salt-frost heaving capacity reached a maximum after 1 freezing-thawing cycle and then dropped drastically and fluctuated regularly. After 6 freezing-thawing cycles, the displacement deformation and time formed a new equilibrium. After 7 freezing-thawing cycles, the displacement and deformation of the soil no longer appear negative. As the number of freezing-thawing cycles increased, the cohesive force of saline soil first increased and then dropped steadily, the internal friction angle first dropped and then increased steadily, and the unconfined shear strength first increased and then decreased. These research results provided data supporting the prevention and controlling highway saline soil disasters with insightful references for the other projects in this region.

Highlights

With wide distribution in Xinjiang, China, saline soils have shown changing properties after repeated temperature variation over the past years, imposing adverse effects on the regular operation of engineering buildings
Salt-frost heaving was the main reason for the deformation and failure of road subgrades. erefore, this study investigated salt-frost heaving rules of chlorite saline soil after multiple freezing-thawing cycles and the related changes of mechanical properties to provide adequate theoretical references for the associated failure prevention design of saline soil engineering in this region
Compared with the later freezing-thawing cycles, the early freezing-thawing cycle has a higher negative impact on durability and volume change. e largest volume change occurred in the first freezing-thawing cycle, and the volume change decreased with the increase of the number of freezing-thawing cycles afterwards [17, 19]

Summary

Research Article

Xuebang Huang ,1 Zizhao Zhang ,1,2 Zezhou Guo ,1 Ruihua Hao ,1 Qianli Lv ,1 Tianchao Liu, and Tiansheng Zhou. Aiming to investigate salt-frost heaving rules and the mechanical properties of natural saline soil along the Duku Highway subjected to multiple freezing-thawing cycles, we collected natural saline soil samples from the alluvial-proluvial plain in front of the Dushanzi Mountain at the starting point of the Duku Highway. En, we conducted mineral composition analysis tests, essential laboratory physical property measurement, large scale multiple freezing-thawing cyclic salt-frost heaving tests, shear strength tests, and unconfined compressive strength tests on the samples. Us, the salt-frost heaving capacity was cumulative in freezing/thawing cycles. After 7 freezing-thawing cycles, the displacement and deformation of the soil no longer appear negative. As the number of freezing-thawing cycles increased, the cohesive force of saline soil first increased and dropped steadily, the internal friction angle first dropped and increased steadily, and the unconfined shear strength first increased and decreased. As the number of freezing-thawing cycles increased, the cohesive force of saline soil first increased and dropped steadily, the internal friction angle first dropped and increased steadily, and the unconfined shear strength first increased and decreased. ese research results provided data supporting the prevention and controlling highway saline soil disasters with insightful references for the other projects in this region

Introduction

The average

Results and Analysis

Reduce Reduce First decrease and then increase Reduce

Conclusions