Abstract
Laboratory data were utilized to verify the finite-element program MELEF for simultaneous water flow, heat and solute transport simulations in saturated-unsaturated porous media. Firstly, numerical simulations were used to predict observed frost heaves in the soil columns, using measured and estimated physical properties as well as experimental conditions as input. The comparison of the predictions and the laboratory experiments showed differences less than 5% between calculated and observed frost heaves at the end of the freezing tests. Secondly, a sensitivity analysis for laboratory conditions allowed the verification of various parameters used in the model (thermal and hydraulic conductivities, capillary height, pore distribution index, residual saturation and clay distribution factor). The analysis showed that frost heaving could be chiefly influenced by the parameters defining the soil moisture retention curve, that is, capillary height, pore distribution index and residual saturation. Finally, frost heaving sensitivity tests were performed with MELEF in order to assess likely transient frost heaves of a particular road submitted to different conditions during a particular winter. The previously studied materials were used as inputs with different water table heights and climatic conditions normally encountered in the Quebec region. Results show that improving road drainage could constitute an appropriate solution to the problems of frost deformation, when the sampled materials contain less fine grains. Materials with similar frost-susceptibility indexes but with different physical properties, did not necessarily have similar frost heaving behaviours for the same road drainage conditions. These findings should help to find better solutions to the engineering problems due to ground freezing by making possible a better correlation between the frost-susceptibility of soils, as measured by various laboratory tests, and the amount of heave observed in the field.
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