Numerical analysis of frost heaving based upon the coupled heat and water flow model

The numerical analysis of frost heaving was conducted using the proposed computer simulation model developed by present authors. The concept of coupled heat and moisture transport in the freezing soil was introduced to develop the simulation model. For verifications of the proposed model, field experiments of frost heaving were carried out by authors. Weather data were collected at the test site and were used for estimating the equilibrium surface temperature as time-veriable boundary conditions. Both hydraulic and thermal properties of a tested soil were directly obtained by experiments. Changes of water content profiles in tested soil layers were measured nondestructively by the neutron scattering method at the site. Then simultaneous fluctuations of water content profiles and temperature profiles were obtained during a soil freezing. The results by the simulation were compared with field data, then the validity of the proposed model was discussed.