The Freezing Characteristics of Pavement Layer Using the Field Road Model Test

Korea is considered to be a seasonal frozen soil area that thaws in the spring, and freezes in winter. In the current design codes for anti-freezing layer, the thickness of anti-freezing layer is calculated by the depth frozen due to the temperature condition. Therefore, there is a tendency of over-design and applying uniform thickness without the consideration of thermal stability, bearing capacity and frost susceptibility of materials. So, it is essential to study the structural appropriateness of pavement layer and bearing capacity besides the seasonal and mechanical properties of pavement materials to take an appropriate and reasonable design of the road structure. In this paper, the evaluation of frost susceptibility on subgrade, ant-freezing layer, subbase was conducted by means of the mechanical characteristics and model experiment. The temperature, heaving amount, unfrozen water contents and freezing depth of soil samples, the subgrade, anti-freezing layer, subbase soils of road construction site were measured to determine the frost susceptibility.