Mechanical analysis of frost heaving of weakly cemented soft rock tunnels in cold regions

Abstract

To reveal the mechanical response of non-uniform frost heave of surrounding rock in soft rock tunnel in cold region, the stress solution of frozen surrounding rock considering the temperature field was deduced by applying elastic mechanics' displacement potential theory and the superposition principle. Then the plastic zone evolution of frozen surrounding rock was clarified by using the limit equilibrium approach. Furthermore, the analytical solution is verified with the existing solutions, and proved to be reasonable. The calculation results showed that as the temperature drops, the growth rate of the frozen zone radius gradually slows down while the stress increment increases. Frost heaving effect lead to a decrease in the critical state value of the lateral pressure coefficient (λ) for tension–compression. Circumferential stresses show a significant stress drop at the frozen boundary, and radial stresses show extreme values. Frost heaving enlarges the circumferential range of the plastic zone. Under low initial vertical stress conditions (p), when λ or 1/λ decreases from 1 to 0, the plastic zone gradually increases, while its range is always in the frozen zone. However, with an increase in “p” and a decrease in temperature to a certain extent, both inner and outer plastic zones emerged.