Creep Behavior of Frozen Sands

The importance of the time-dependent stress-strain-strength behavior of soils has been highly recognized in the construction of the embankment on soft clays. Similar to the soft clay, the frozen ground is known for its strong time-dependent behaviors. This field has recently received increasing attention in Korea after the participation on the development of the natural gas pipeline in Russia as well as the recent construction of the second Korean Antarctic research station, the Jangbogo station. Since the frozen soil exhibit different behaviors from the unfrozen soils, particularly the distinct behavioral characteristics in creep, it is necessary to evaluate the creep characteristics of frozen soils systematically with regard to the affecting factors such as the temperature and the applied load. Therefore, the creep characteristics of the frozen specimens of dense Jumoonjin sand were evaluated under various loads at –5 and –10~. Based on the test results, as the load became close to the strength and the temperature became lower, the duration of the secondary creep became shorter and more distinct tertiary creep responses were observed.