Deformation behaviour of frozen sand and its physical interpretation

Deformation behaviour of a frozen medium sand was investigated in a high- pressure triaxial testing machine. In this paper, constant strain rate tests are considered, which were run uniaxially with temperatures between -2°C and -20°C. The samples were prepared in the laboratory using a sophisticated procedure resulting in a very low scatter of dry density and water content. The servo-hydraulic testing machine is controlled by a personal computer which allows tests in a wide range of stresses and strain rates. The low scattering of the test results shows the deformation behaviour of the frozen sand more clearly than former tests. This enables an interpretation by the mechanics of crystalline solids. The influence of strain rate and of temperature are described by the theory of thermally activated processes, considering two different mechanisms which are possible under the given conditions.