Étude expérimentale du dégel d'un limon argileux:application aux chaussées et pergélisols alpins ...

• Main Author: Dysli, Michel
• Format: Text
• Language: French
• Published: Lausanne, EPFL 2007
• Subjects: Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5075/epfl-thesis-3792; http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/101066

Curiously, the thawing of frozen soils containing ice lenses has only been the subject of rare fundamental studies even though it is the cause of the greatest damage to constructions. The reduction of bearing capacity caused by the thawing of the ice lenses is a destructive phenomenon, and thus costly, which concerns roadway and railway infrastructures, as well as the melting of mountain permafrost by global warming. The present research, especially experimental, has tried to explain how ice lenses melt and how the water produced by the melting acts on soil properties, in particular on their deformability. Numerous freezing and thawing tests have been carried out in a testing apparatus including : A mould containing a specimen 150 mm in diameter and 300 mm in height. It is slightly conical in order to reduce the friction against its walls due to swelling. Numerous gauges placed on the sides and in the specimen in order to measure temperature, unfrozen water content and suction. Three cryostats, which control ...