Tests of the Concept of Secondary Frost Heaving

Abstract
Heaving tests were conducted with 2–4, 4–8, and 8–16 µm soil fractions in special apparatus in which sliding friction (during heaving) was eliminated by confining the specimen as in standard triaxial test apparatus. Maximum pressures developed by heaving exceeded those computed by a primary heaving model (using air intrusion data) by factors as large as 3 to 6. Maximum pressures and rates of heave at constant pressures depended on temperature gradient and were maximal at gradients between 1 and 3C cm‐1.Comparisons with simplified transport equations for a frozen fringe adjacent to a growing ice lens (the characteristic feature of secondary heaving) indicate that pore ice in the frozen fringe contributes to water transport for lens growth but this may be offset by plastic counter‐flow of ice at large temperature gradients, accounting for the gradient‐dependent maxima.Results were interpreted as supporting the concept of secondary heaving.

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