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Creep behavior of soft clay subjected to artificial freeze–thaw from multiple-scale perspectives

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Abstract

Relying on the application of the artificial freezing method on subway tunnel construction, a series of triaxial creep tests were carried out to study the creep behavior changes of Shanghai soft clay subjected to artificial freeze–thaw action. On this basis, MIP tests were conducted with the soil samples before and after creep for comparison to investigate the microstructure changes. The results indicate that freeze–thawed soil produces smaller creep deformation and instantaneous deformation than the unfrozen soil. On a micro-level, during the creep process, the soil skeleton reaches a new structure balance with smaller pore volume and pore area. But the diameter of the maximum pore increases. The change rate of total intrusion volume is a pivotal micro-parameter to evaluate creep strain as there is a good linear relationship between them.

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Acknowledgements

The investigation was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No. BLX201618) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31800610 and 41072204). The authors are deeply indebted to the financial supporters. And we gratefully acknowledge the Beijing Municipal Education Commission for their financial support through Innovative Transdisciplinary Program “Ecological Restoration Engineering”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Jun Li & Wei Feng

  2. Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Jun Li & Wei Feng

  3. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China

    Yiqun Tang

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  1. Jun Li
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  2. Yiqun Tang
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  3. Wei Feng
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Correspondence to Jun Li.

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Li, J., Tang, Y. & Feng, W. Creep behavior of soft clay subjected to artificial freeze–thaw from multiple-scale perspectives. Acta Geotech. 15, 2849–2864 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-020-00980-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-020-00980-2

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