Unified Soil Freezing Characteristic for Variably‐Saturated Saline Soils

Abstract

AbstractFreezing and thawing of soil have a significant impact on the thermal‐hydrological processes in cold regions. Freezing point and unfrozen water content are key variables characterizing the freezing and thawing of soil. The testing results show that unfrozen water content is independent of initial water content in nonsaline silt, based on which a unified model for a soil freezing characteristic curve (SFCC) is presented. The SFCC describes the relationship between unfrozen water content and temperature for variably‐saturated saline soils. It is also demonstrated that the SFCC can describe the variation of soil freezing point with respect to water content and salt concentration. The SFCC model is validated by comparing the experimental data to the calculated result for unfrozen water content and freezing point in a variety of conditions. When the initial water content varies in saline soil, the SFCC changes with constant initial salt concentration, but it remains unchanged with constant gravimetric salt content. The SFCC model can be adopted in the simulation of thermal‐hydrological processes in arid and saline lands and coastal regions. Finally, an example of thermal‐hydrological processes was simulated with the new SFCC model to show the application of the presented model.