Effects of Temperature and Confining Pressure on Mechanical Characteristics of Frozen Gravelly Soil

Gravelly soil is widely used in cold regions in engineering as a filler material and the research on the strength characteristics is the basis for the design and maintenance of frozen gravelly soil engineering. To investigate the strength characteristics of frozen gravelly soil, a series of tri-axial tests were carried out at various negative temperatures and confining pressures. The experimental results demonstrate that the deviatoric stress-axial strain curve of frozen gravelly soil is characterized by three stages. The strength of frozen gravelly soil is significantly affected by confining pressure and temperature and the strength increases with the decrease in temperature and the increase in confining pressure. The E-0 and E-0.5 of frozen gravelly soil increase as temperature decreases. In addition, E-0 is extremely sensitive to changes in confining pressure and E-0 increases with the increase in confining pressure, while E-0.5 changes with less regularity with confining pressure.