Location of segregated ice in frost-susceptible soil

Abstract

X-ray photography has been used to locate the position of a growing ice lens in soil under laboratory conditions in order to establish the temperature of the actively growing face by means of its position in the thermal gradient field. It can be shown that in a general way the phase change temperatures are predictable from the Clapeyron equation. The structure of the ice phase also appears to follow the predictions of the heave rate equation proposed by Penner and Ueda (1978). When heaving occurs at low overburden pressures, there is a tendency for the ice lens to be very discrete and essentially soil free; at higher pressures and under similar thermal gradients it tends to develop in a more diffuse band and over a much wider temperature range.