open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/lowtemsci.84.39

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/99016

Experimental study on the mechanism of frost heave phenomenon

日本語

Chemical potential

2026-03-10

低温科学研究所

Low Temperature Science

84

39-56

Frost heave is a phenomenon in which ice lenses grow near the frozen surface during freezing, causing the soil to expand. This phenomenon is an important issue in engineering fields such as ground freezing methods and the freezing of ground around underground LNG tanks. To clarify the mechanism of this phenomenon, we conducted systematic frost heave experiments under various temperature gradient and freezing rate conditions and investigated the relationship between the water intake rate at the frozen surface, the temperature gradient in the frozen soil, and the freezing rate. We also calculated the ice lens growth surface temperature from the experiments and the relationship between the water intake rate at the frozen surface and the ice lens growth surface temperature. Based on these experimental results, we evaluated the validity of previous frost heave models. We found that the frost heave model, which assumes that the water intake rate into the ice lens is limited by the decrease in the hydraulic conductivity of the frozen fringe or the water film near the ice lens, does not fit the experimental results. On the other hand, we found that the frost heave model, which assumes that the water intake rate into the ice lens is limited by the chemical potential difference between the ice lens and the nearby water film, is consistent with the experimental results.

紀要論文

Version of Record

1880-7593