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Geomechanics and Engineering Volume 15, Number 4, July20 2018, pages 997-1004 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12989/gae.2018.15.4.997 |
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Experimental study on freezing point of saline soft clay after freeze-thaw cycling |
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Songhe Wang, Qinze Wang, Jilin Qi and Fengyin Liu
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| Abstract | ||
| The brine leakage is a tough problem in artificial freezing engineering. This paper takes the common soft clay in Wujiang District as the study object, and calcium chloride solutions with six salinity levels were considered. The \'classic\' cooling curve method was employed to measure the freezing point of specimens after freeze-thaw. Results indicate that four characteristic stages can be observed including supercooling, abrupt transition, equilibrium and continual freezing, strongly dependent on the variation of unfrozen water content. Two characteristic points were found from the cooling curves, i.e., freezing point and initial crystallization temperature. A critical value for the former exists at which the increment lowers. The higher the saline content approximately linearly, lower the freezing point. In the initial five cycles, the freezing point increases and then stabilizes. Besides, the degree of supercooling was calculated and its correlations with water, salt and freeze-thaw cycles were noted. Finally, an empirical equation was proposed for the relationship of freezing point and three main factors, i.e., water content, saline content and freeze-thaw cycles. Comparison of calculated and measured data proves that it is reliable and may provide guidance for the design and numerical analysis in frozen soil engineering. | ||
| Key Words | ||
| freezing point; freeze and thaw; frozen soils; salinity; supercooling degree | ||
| Address | ||
| Songhe Wang, Qinze Wang and Fengyin Liu: Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Xi\'an University of Technology, Xi | ||