Freezing?induced stiffness and strength anisotropy in freezing clayey soil: Theory, numerical modeling, and experimental validation

This paper presents a combined experimental-modeling effort to interpret the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviors of freezing soil, where an unconfined, fully saturated clay is frozen due temperature gradient. By leveraging rich experimental data from microCT images and measurements taken during process, we examine not only how growth ice induces volumetric changes soil in specimen but also presence propagation fringe front may evolve anisotropy effective media soil–ice mixture that cannot be otherwise captured phenomenologically isotropic saturation-dependent critical state models for plasticity. The resultant model helpful providing qualitative description affects responses clayey material, provide mean generate more precise predictions heaving ground.