Experimental Study of Frozen Soil Mechanical Properties for Seismic Design of Pile Foundations

A recent study has shown that seasonally frozen ground has a great impact on the seismic performance of bridges in cold regions. It not only alters overall bridge dynamic properties, but also affects the failure mechanisms of bridge substructure systems. The soil lateral resistance approach is widely used in the seismic design of bridge pile foundations. Knowledge on the lateral resistance of frozen soils, including both seasonally frozen soils and permafrost at shallow depths, is needed for designing pile foundations in broad cold regions including Alaska. In fact, a few key mechanical parameters for frozen soils are required in order to construct the p-y curve for modeling frozen soils. Although there have been studies on the mechanical properties of frozen soils, most existing studies were based on remolded, artificially frozen soil samples, which do not necessarily represent the soil in the field. How much impact the remolding process and disturbances have on frozen soil strength and stress-strain behavior is not clear. This paper describes an experimental program aimed at filling the knowledge gap by providing these key frozen soil parameters for typical Alaskan soils. Unconfined uniaxial compression tests were conducted for typical soils found in Alaska in order to obtain the stress-strain behavior. Soil types tested included organic, silty and sandy frozen soils. Variables considered included density, water/ice content, temperature and sample orientation. A majority of the test specimens were naturally frozen soils with minimal thermal disturbance. The test results provide needed strength parameters for constructing frozen soil lateral resistance curves. The differences found in mechanical properties between natural and artificial samples provide insight into the mechanics of frozen soils and shed light on how frozen soil test data in the literature could be used in today's seismic design of bridge foundations in cold regions.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412473.047
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780784412473
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Ge, X
  • Yang, Zhongzhen
  • Still, B
  • Li, Q
• Conference:
  • Cold Regions Engineering 2012
  • Location: Quebec City Quebec, Canada
  • Date: 2012-8-19 to 2012-8-22
• Publication Date: 2012-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Pagination: pp 478-488
• Monograph Title: Cold Regions Engineering 2012: Sustainable Infrastructure Development in a Changing Cold Environment

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge design; Compression tests; Deformation curve; Earthquake resistant design; Frigid regions; Frozen soils; Mechanical properties; Pile foundations
• Geographic Terms: Alaska
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Geotechnology; Highways; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls; I42: Soil Mechanics;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01500367
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780784412473
• Files: TRIS, ASCE
• Created Date: Dec 3 2013 9:09AM