This paper reviews eight geoacoustic models applied to frozen soils: crystal growth models (grain cementing, grain coating, matrix supporting, and pore filling), the weighted equation (WE) model, Zimmerman and King's model (KT), the Biot-Gassmann theory modified by Lee (BGTL), and a two-end member model. We verify the capacity of these models to estimate unfrozen water content (UWC) based on "reference" UWC results and joint P and S wave velocities for different soil types. The satisfactory UWC estimates of saline unconsolidated sand and overconsolidated clay based on V p data prove that the KT, BGTL, and two-end member models are capable of modeling "smooth" transitions in the ice crystal growth mode, while they may provide less accurate UWC values when abrupt change of crystallization mode occurs. None of the tested soil types show a single crystallization mode throughout the freezing process, as assumed by individual crystal growth models. V s-based UWC estimates are less accurate due to significant but difficult-to-estimate influence of effective stress and soil initial cementation. All models, except pore filling and matrix supporting, can match V s versus V p measurement results for sands and silts but gradually provide inconsistent estimates with increasing clay content. We conclude that model validation by independent UWC measurements is necessary and that consistency between UWC values estimated from V s and V p is insufficient to ensure proper model validation.
A systematical testing program on frozen Onsøy clay under isotropic loading and undrained shearing at different temperatures (− 3 ~ − 10 °C), strain rates (0.2~5%/h) and initial Terzaghi effective stress (20~400 kPa) was conducted with the focus on pore pressure development. It is meant to increase the understanding and facilitate the development of an ‘effective stress’-based model for multi-physical analysis for frozen soils. This study adopted the pore pressure measurement method suggested by Arenson and Springman (Can Geotech J 42 (2):412–430, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1139/t04-111) and developed a new testing procedure for frozen soils, including a ‘slow’ freezing method for sample preparation and post-freezing consolidation for securing hydraulic pressure equilibrium. The B-value of frozen soils is less than 1 and significantly dependent on temperature and loading history. The dilative tendency or pore pressure development in an undrained shearing condition is found to be dependent on both unfrozen water content and mean stress, which is consistent with unfrozen soils. Besides, the experimental results reported in the literature regarding uniaxial tests show that the shear strength does not share the same temperature- and salinity-dependency for different frozen soil types. The rate dependency of frozen soils is characterized between rate dependency of pure ice and that of the unfrozen soil and is therefore highly determined by the content of ice and the viscous behavior of ice (through temperature dependency). This paper also explains the pore pressure response in freezing and thawing is dependent on volumetric evolution of soil skeleton.
The previous laboratory study of joint electrical resistivity and acoustic velocity measurements is reviewed for both consolidated and unconsolidated permafrost in this paper. The relation of logarithm of resistivity log(R) and P-wave velocity Vp is a concave function. An increase of temperature, fine content and salinity results in a decrease of both acoustic velocity and electrical resistivity. Electrical resistivity is sensitive to salinity, while acoustic velocity changes substantially near thawing temperature.The joint measurement results could be used to estimate unfrozen water saturation (UWS) based on Archie's law, weighted equation (WE) or Kuster-Toksoz equations (KT). However, the estimated UWS from different methods is not always consistent. The difference can be up to 20%. It might be due to the fact that UWS is not the only parameter influencing the electrical and acoustic properties. In order to obtain consistent UWS, a joint model that combines the electrical effective medium theory (EMT) and the acoustic selfconsistent approximation (SCA) is proposed. In this method, UWS and aspect ratio which describes particles shape are found simultaneously from the joint SCA-EMT model. Most of the results from the proposed method are between that of Archie's law and WE method, which indicates that the electrical method might overestimate UWS and acoustic method might underestimate it.
<p><strong>Abstract. </strong>The climate change has aroused great concern on the stability and durability of the infrastructure installed on permafrost, especially for frozen saline clay with a large amount of unfrozen water content at subzero temperature. The joint electrical resistivity and acoustic velocity measurements are conducted for frozen saline sand and ons&#248;y clay with 50% clay content and 20~40 g/L salinity in order to determine the unfrozen water content. A systematic program of tests involves the saline sand with different salinity, natural ons&#248;y clay with the variable of temperature and freezing-thawing cycles and reconstituted ons&#248;y clay with distinctive density and salinity. The data analysis of measurement results in combination with previous joint measurements for frozen soil resolves the effect of temperature, salinity, soil type and freezing-thawing cycles on the acoustic and electrical properties. An increase of temperature, fine content and salinity results in a decrease of both acoustic velocity and electrical resistivity. Electrical resistivity is sensitive to salinity, while acoustic velocity changes substantially near thawing temperature. We also find that both natural and reconstituted clay with similar water content and salinity show quite different acoustic velocity and electrical resistivity, which indicates that ice crystal structures are distinctive between natural and reconstituted samples. Besides, P-wave velocity is much more sensitive to the fabric change or induced cracks than electrical resistance during freezing-thawing cycles. &#160;In the end, acoustic models like the weighted equation (Lee et al., 1996), Zimmerman and King&#8217;s model (King et al., 1988) and BGTL (Lee, 2002) are applied to the UWS estimates based on P-wave velocity and electrical models like Archine&#8217;s law are adopted based on electrical resistance. Both estimated UWS from different methods is not always consistent. The difference can be up to 20%.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Frozen Saline Clay, Acoustic Velocity, Electrical Resistance, Unfrozen Water Saturation</p><p>References:</p><p>King, M. S., Zimmerman, R. W., & Corwin, R. F. (1988, May). Seismic and Electrical-Properties of Unconsolidated Permafrost. Geophysical Prospecting, 36(4), 349-364. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2478.1988.tb02168.x</p><p>Lee, J. S. (2002). Biot&#8211;Gassmann theory for velocities of gas hydrate-bearing sediments.</p><p>Lee, M. W., Hutchinson, D. R., Collett, T. S., & Dillon, W. P. (1996). Seismic velocities for hydrate-bearing sediments using weighted equation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 101(B9), 20347-20358. https://doi.org/10.1029/96jb01886</p><p>&#160;</p>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.