Frost Action and Foundations Penner, E.; Crawford, C
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRC Frost action and foundations Penner, E.; Crawford, C. B. This publication could be one of several versions: author’s original, accepted manuscript or the publisher’s version. / La version de cette publication peut être l’une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l’auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l’éditeur. NRC Publications Record / Notice d'Archives des publications de CNRC: https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=72a0db40-5304-473d-848e-a0f831b43c2e https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=72a0db40-5304-473d-848e-a0f831b43c2e Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/copyright READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE. L’accès à ce site Web et l’utilisation de son contenu sont assujettis aux conditions présentées dans le site https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/droits LISEZ CES CONDITIONS ATTENTIVEMENT AVANT D’UTILISER CE SITE WEB. Questions? Contact the NRC Publications Archive team at [email protected]. If you wish to email the authors directly, please see the first page of the publication for their contact information. Vous avez des questions? Nous pouvons vous aider. Pour communiquer directement avec un auteur, consultez la première page de la revue dans laquelle son article a été publié afin de trouver ses coordonnées. Si vous n’arrivez pas à les repérer, communiquez avec nous à [email protected]. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH FROST ACTION AND FOUNDATIONS by . E. Penner and C.B. Crawford Presented at the 27th Annual University of Minnesota Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Conference February 1979 and published as DBR Paper No. 1090 of the Division of Building Research Ottawa March 1983 FROST ACTION AND FOUNDATIONS by E. Penner and C.B. Crawford ABSTRACT The relationship between climate, seasonal frost penetration and permafrost is discussed in relation to construction activities. The nature of the ground thermal regime, the mechanism of frost heaving, and the criteria for frost susceptibility of earth materials are outlined. Practical examples related to the design and construction of building foundations, roads, runways and ice rinks are described and problems of freezing during construction activities and thaw settlement of the ground are reviewed. Les auteurs 6tudient les relations entre le climat, la p6n6tration du gel saisonnier et le pergglisol en fonction des activitge de construction. 11s examinent la nature du rkgime thermique du sol, la mgcanique du soul2vement di3 au gel et les critsres de giSlivit6 de diffgrents sols. Les auteurs prgsentent des exemples pratiques relatifs 2 la conception et 3 la construction de fondations, de routes, de pistes d'atterrissage et de patinoires. 11s passent aussi en revue les problsmes du gel en cours de construction et du tassement du sol par le d6gel. In southern Canada and the northern United States the ground freezes every winter and thaws in the spring. Farther north the ground is perennially frozen in a condition called permafrost. The rate and depth of freezing or thawing is of special interest to those involved with the construction of buildings, roads, airports apd other modern structures or service facilities. There are so many factors influencing the freezing and thawing of the ground that precise computations of the change in phase are difficult if not impossible. Nevertheless, a general appreciation of the factors often permits reaeonable predictability. This paper diecusees the relationship between climate and ground temperatures and the mechanism of frost heaving in relation to a variety of engineering problems. Although the temperature of the ground tends to reflect the temperature of the air, the Mean Annual Ground Temperature (MAGT) is always higher (at least in northern latitudes) than the Mean Annual Air Temperature (MAAT). The primary reason for this is the influence of snow cover on the surface heat exchange. Summer vegetation has a more complex influence involving both evapotranspiration and shading. Other external factors include sunshine, rainfall, relative humidity, wind speed, precipitation and slope of the surface. Average ground temperatures are determined by external factors, but variations (daily and seasonal) are controlled by three intrinsic thermal properties: volumetric heat capacity Cv, thermal conductivity K, and the latent heat of water. The water content of the ground obviously has a great influence on these three variables and because water content varies with climate, soil type and drainage conditions, this is further evidence of the difficulties associated with the computation of ground temperatures. Volumetric heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and the latent heat capacity all increase with increasing water content. The ratio K/Cv, called thermal diffusivity, is a measure of the ease with which unfrozen soil will change temperature. It is usually a maximum at fairly low water contents. As the soil water freezes, the changes in the icelwater ratio and the latent heat of fusion become important factors in ground temperature calculations. In addition, in frost-susceptible soils the amount of water moved to the freezing plane must be estimated; this introduces further errors. Figure 1 shows monthly average ground temperatures in clay soil with a natural surface cover (grass and undisturbed snow). Note that at a depth of 4.5 m (15 ft) the minimum temperature occurs in July and the maximum in December, in each case about 6 months out of phase with the air temperatures. It may also be noted that there was little if any freezing of the ground under natural snow cover, although frost penetrated about 0.9 m (3 ft) under adjacent snow-cleared conditions (Crawford and Legget, 1957). Figure 2 shows the Mean Annual Ground Temperature profile for sites with natural snow cover (curve A) and snow cleared (curve B) at Ottawa, Ontario and for a snow-cleared area (curve C) at Knob Lake (Schefferville, Quebec). The MAGT varies imperceptibly with depth under natural snow cover (A), but under an adjacent snow- cleared roadway the MAGT near the surface is substantially lower (B). Figure 3 illustrates differences between the MAGT and MAAT for several locations in Canada. These differences vary from about 13"~at Vancouver to 7OC at Kapuskasing in northern Ontario (Williams and Gold, 1976). FROST PxmTuTIOH From an engineering point of view, one of the most important interests in ground temperatures concerns the depth of frost penetration. This value is needed for locating water and sewer services and the design of roads, runways, and many types of foundations. The prediction of frost penetration by computation is difficult because of the multitude and complexity of variables. The best way to establish the maximum, minimum and average depth of frost penetration is to ask the people who make excavations the year round, the city water department. An alternative is to refer to a reasonably well-established relationship between air temperatures and frost penetration and modify the result to account for major variations in surface or soil conditions. The general relationship between air temperatures and frost penetration was established by an extensive investigation of frost penetration through granular base courses under snow-cleared airport pavements in the northern United States (U.S . Corps of Engineers, 1949). The results of these studies showed a general relationship between the maximum depth of freezing and the Freezing Index (F.I.) - the cumulative total of degree days of air temperature below freezing during the entire winter. The F.I. is calculated using the mean daily temperatures with subtractions for days above freezing. The relationship between frost penetration and F.I. is commonly called the "Design Curve." The Design Curve has, of course, some limitations. It applies to snow-free surfaces and granular soils. It is intended to give an estimate of the maximum frost penetration during the entire winter - its use for estimating penetration some time during the winter is less reliable. It does not take into account the water content of the soil - the most important intrinsic factor. W.G. Brown (1964) calculated frost penetrations for a variety of soils with a range of water contents and for dry sand and rock using the modified Neumann solution and the Kersten (1949) values for thermal properties. He found that the results varied by a factor of less than 2 to 1, and they bracketed the Design Curve. Although Brown does not recommend calculating frost penetration, he did use his calculations and additional field data to recommend a slight change in slope of the original Design Curve as shown in Figure 4. The average F.I. can be computed from meteorological records or estimated from a Freezing Index map such as is illustrated in Figure 5 (Boyd, 1973; Burn, 1976). Once a value for frost penetration is obtained from the Design Curve, judgment must be applied to account for local conditions. Experience has shown, for example, that 0.3 m (1 ft) of natural snow cover will reduce frost penetration by at least 0.3 m and up to 0.6 m (1-2 ft). Compact snow or ice will reduce penetration by an amount approximately equal to its thickness. Frost will penetrate less into wet clay than into granular soils, but the penetration into almost dry granular soils may be greater than that estimated by the Design Curve. The difficulties in computing ground temperatures have led to the development of graphical methods for solving field problems dealing with natural or engineering structures lying directly on the ground surface (Brown, W.G., 1963). These include: 1) Shallow lakes and rivers on unfrozen or frozen soil (permafrost); 2) Basementless buildings, either heated or cooled; 3) Ice rinks; 4) Streets and streets bordered by buildings; and 5) Roads and runways.