Project title: Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Behavior of Soils Subjected To Freeze/Thaw CYCLES

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF). Award Number: 2034204

Overview: Seasonally frozen soils dominate approximately 55% of the earth's total surface land. This area amounts, roughly, to 55 million sq. km. Temperature anomalies have been magnified at upper latitudes. Rising air temperatures will cause an increase in ground temperatures, intensifying permafrost degradation. The interest in improving the current knowledge on the behavior of frozen soils is multifold; amongst others, these are (i) safer and more economical design of new civil infrastructure, and better assessment of existing ones, in regions subjected to freezing temperatures; (ii) better understanding of temporary ground improvement techniques based on soil freezing; and (iii) more realistic predictions of the adverse effects associated with permafrost degradation. Although this topic has received increased attention in the past years, there are still several phenomena associated with this complex type of soil that need to be investigated. This project combines fundamental, experimental, and numerical investigations to advance the current understanding of this complex and critical subject. The project will produce high-quality experimental data, associated with the Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) behavior of frozen soils subjected to Freeze-Thaw (Fr-Th) cycles under different stress levels, which will enhance the current database, and fill gaps in this area. The experimental campaign contemplates both micro- and macro-scale investigations. Advanced constitutive and numerical THM models will be proposed to solve engineering problems involving frozen soils subjected to complex loading conditions and Fr-Th cycles. The new knowledge generated will tackle the problems listed above.