The Analysis of Temperature and Displacement Coupling in Freeze-Thaw Process of Soil

Abstract

Through the coupling analysis of temperature and displacement fields in freeze-thaw process of soil by ABAQUS software, a numerical simulation method of the two fields coupling in freeze-thaw process of soil is put forward. In computation, the temperature field is analyzed firstly, and then the physico-mechanical parameters are defined as functions of temperature field. The geometric model and boundary conditions of numerical simulation are identical with these in laboratorial tests. By comparing the computation results of soil freeze-thaw process with its laboratorial test results, it was found that on the curve of soil freeze-thaw process obtained from laboratorial tests there is a short frost-swelling phenomenon at the initial stage of freeze-thaw process, and then is continuous thaw condition, but on the numerical computation curve, the reflect of soil frost swelling stage isn’t obvious. With the exception of this the numerical computation result and laboratorial test result are more identical. The frost-swelling quantum is very small, so the main expression of overall deformation of soil is thaw-settlement deformation. Therefore the frost swelling phenomenon doesn’t influence the end quantum of settlement. For this reason, the computing method introduced in this paper can be used to conduct numerical simulation of the thaw-settlement of frozen soil and to a certain extent guide the designs of subgrade and pavement in permafrost zones.