NUMERICAL RESEARCH ON THE COUPLED PROCESS OF THE MOISTURE-HEAT-STRESS FIELDS IN SATURATED SOIL DURING FREEZING

Based on the assumption of rigid ice and the hydrodynamic model, regarding the soil as elastic, the dynamic model of the coupled moisture-heat-stress process is established considering the influence of the strain due to the moisture migration. By means of the finite element method and the finite difference method, this paper analyzes numerically the coupled process of the moisture-heat-stress fields in saturated soil during freezing. The variations of water content and stress over height in saturated soil during freezing are obtained. The influences of the freezing time and the temperature boundary condition on the distributions of water content and stress are further discussed. The numerical results demonstrate that the water content increases gradually neighboring the freezing front, because the moisture migrates to the freezing front during the freezing process, which leads to the increase of the stress near the freezing front, which in turn causes the frost deformation in frozen soil.