Modelling frost heaving and frost penetration in soils at some observation sites in Finland: The SSR model: Dissertation

The purpose of this study was to monitor frost heaving and frost penetration at six observation sites in Finland in 1982 - 1984, Frost heaving was also studied in the laboratory with frost-heave tests carried out on undisturbed specimens. The observed freezing behaviour was compared with the climatic conditions. The frost penetration and frost heave were found to correlate with the freezing index. Relative frost heave was fairly constant at each site, varying between 0.03 and 0.23. A calculation model based on heat balance at the freezing front was tested for the estimation of frost heave and frost penetration. The spatial description of frost heaving and frost penetration was reasonably good. Estimation of the in situ segregation potential from the observed frost heaving and frost penetration data was also successful. Comparison of the back calculated segregation potentials from site observations with those from laboratory frost heave tests revealed a good correlation between the average value of frost heave tests and the in-situ estimate. The laboratory values were, in general, slightly smaller than the in-situ values. This may reflect the influence of side friction on the laboratory test values.