Numerical study on coupled modelling of artificial freezing marine soil

A theoretical model is proposed to investigate the coupling of the hydro-ice-salt-crystalline-thermal-mechanical of the artificial frozen marine soil in coastal areas. The influence of non-convective and thermal permeability in the fields of salt, pressure, thermal, and water, the compressibility of solid particles, as well as solute potential and ice resistance coefficients in convective flux are comprehensively considered based on the mass, energy, and momentum conservation equations. The proposed coupling model is solved using the COMSOL Multiphysics software. The accuracy of the proposed theoretical model is verified by the model test results in the literature. The parametric studies are conducted to investigate the effects of the key parameters on the freezing process. It is found that the salt desorption of the frozen marine soil cannot be ignored. The effect of salt desorption in the frozen area is strong which makes the adsorbed salt content in the unfrozen area greater than that in the frozen area. The change in salt mass fraction has a great influence on the overall frost heave, salt heave and water freezing. With the increase of overburden, the soil is compressed and the desorption effect is enhanced in the frozen area.