Effective thermal expansion coefficient of frozen granite soil

The paper focuses on the development of a model for the coupled thermal transfer and frost action of a soil medium, considering the phase-change effect in the frozen fringe, for a closed system. The frost pressure of the cylindrical soil specimens observed in the freezing test gave a reference value to determine the effective thermal expansion coefficient numerically. Through the proposed numerical technique, the effective thermal expansion coefficient was defined for the frozen granite soil as a function of subzero temperature and initial in situ pore-water content. A comparative analyses between the numerical results and the measurements obtained in the freezing chamber test was conducted to verify the performance of the effective thermal expansion coefficient and the agreement was good.