The second scientific Antarctica station of South Korea is under construction at Terra Nova Bay located in east Antarctica. The objective of this study is the evaluation of the frost heave susceptibility of soils sampled from the second station site by performing laboratory frost heaving tests. Experiments are carried out with the soil specimens taken from five different areas at Terra Nova Bay. Test specimens are frozen with constant temperatures at the top and bottom of the specimen at −17 °C and 4 °C, respectively. In addition, grain size analyses and unfrozen water tests are also performed for monitoring the characteristics of the water contained in the permafrost. Frost susceptibility is evaluated by standard methods recommended in UK, US and Japan. Experimental results show that the more the fine contents exist in soils, the more frost heave occurs. The result denotes that grain size has a significant effect on frost heave. The results suggest that the frost heaving susceptibility of the frozen ground at the Antarctic site would be effectively evaluated through the grain size and the frost heaving parameters.
Using the finite element analysis model presented in accompanying paper, parametric study was performed in this paper. Various parameters were considered such as the width of wheel loads-induced permanent plastic deformation, backfill, equivalent thickness and orthogonal characteristic of steel mats. The effects of these parameters were analyzed for vertical and rotational displacements, maximum moment and tensile stress. From the parametric studies, it is found that great vertical deflection and tensile stress above allowable flexural tensile strength are developed in steel mats by the wheel loads-induced permanent plastic deformation. Backfill or increasing the thickness of steel mats is a feasible solution on this problem.
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