THM coupled model for simulating frost heave based on a new water film pressure criterion

The frost heave and thaw settlement are the main frost damage in cold areas, which are the complex coupling process of water, temperature and stress fields. In this study, a coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical model is developed based on the water film theory, in which the temperature and void ratio of soils are the input variables. The novelty of this model is that the frozen water film pressure is used as the criterion for the generation of ice lens. The driving force of water migration is newly defined, and the frost heave includes the pristine frost heave and the amount of ice segregation. The fully coupled model is numerically solved based on the Matlab and COMSOL Multiphysics, generating the results of soil temperature, moisture, stress and the layered ice lens. The simulated results are then compared with those of the laboratory freezing tests, which shows that they match quite well and verify the validity of the proposed model. The simulation indicates that temperature gradient can promote the frost heave, and the overburden pressure can attract more water to the freezing front but decrease the amount of the frost heave. In addition, both the hydraulic conductivity and the compressive modulus have positive effects on the frost heave. The proposed model provides a new approach to understand the frost heave.