Pore pressure in thawing soil

An analytical solution which describes the pore pressure behavior in a thawing soil is obtained by solving the differential equation of consolidation in the thawed portion of the soil, where the thaw front constitutes a moving boundary. In order to test the validity of this theoretical solution, a laboratory device has been developed. With this device, one-dimensional thawing tests can be performed on frozen cylindrical soil samples. The temperature distribution, pore pressure, and sample compression are recorded during the test. The principal behavior of the measured pore pressure agrees well with the theory. Other important properties of this theory are also supported by the experimental results. However, the consolidation coefficient cv at a point in the thawing soil, has not been found to remain constant during thawing.