Triaxial compression deformation for artificial frozen clay with thermal gradient

In order to study the deformation characteristics of artificial frozen soil with thermal gradient, such as the stress–strain relationship, a series of triaxial compression tests for frozen clay had been conducted by K 0DCGF (K 0 consolidation, freezing with non-uniform temperature under loading) method and GFC (freezing with non-uniform temperature, isotropic consolidation) method at various consolidation pressures and thermal gradients. Stress–strain curves in K 0DCGF test present strain softening during shearing process and the elastic strain is approximately 0.001;but which present the strain hardening characteristics in GFC tests and the elastic strain is approximately 0.01. The elastic modulus and peak stress for frozen clay decrease as the thermal gradient increased at different consolidation pressure both in K 0DCGF test and GFC test. The peak stress and elastic modulus in K 0DCGF test are significant independent on the pressure melting and crushing phenomena occurring in GFC test. To describe the shear deformation characteristics for frozen clay with thermal gradient, the exponent and power equations considering the correction equation on thermal gradient and model parameters from frozen clay with uniform temperature are developed .The results indicated that the proposed equations can reproduce the shear deformation well both in K 0DCGF test and GFC test. ► We investigate the elastic modulus and compression strength for frozen clay with thermal gradient by K 0DCGF method (K 0 consolidation, freezing with non-uniform temperature under loading). ► The thermal gradient presents the weakening effects to the elastic modulus and strength for frozen clay. ► We develop a correction function to describe the stress–strain relationship for frozen clay with thermal gradient.