The mechanics of frozen soils

Mechanical processes in soils are the processes generated by internal stresses of various kinds resulting in elastic, viscous, or plastic strains occurring with or without breakage of the continuity of their material. Freezing of water-saturated soils results of soil heaving due to the 9" expansion of the volume of water during freezing, when the moisture has no way of migrating into the frozen ground or escaping into the underlying thawed soils. Freezing of water in a closed volume (for example, in some soil pores) can induce pronounced stresses in conditions of strain suppression. The more pronounced the suppressed strain, the higher the stresses noted in the freezing soil. Massive heaving of freezing, water-unsaturated soils will occur depending upon the degree of filling of the pores with moisture. Frost susceptibility is defined as ground (soil or rock) in which segregated ice will form under suitable conditions of moisture supply and temperature.