Effect of sample preparation and freezing temperature on constitutive modeling for frozen soil in subsea tunnel construction

Abstract: When high water-pressure is expected during constructing cross passages in subsea bored tunnels, convectional grouting technologies are not appropriately adapted to water cut-off. In this extreme condition, the artificial ground freezing (AGF) technique can be a promising alternative for constructing cross passages through highly-fractured fault zones. An appropriate experiment procedure to determine the frozen material properties as well as a suitable constitutive model to describe the stress-strain relationship is crucially important for applying the AGF technique. However, such unavoidable issues are not fully addressed yet, which restricts extensive use of the AGF technique. Based on the tension modified Cam-Clay model, this paper proposes a novel constitutive model that can take into account the temperature effect on the stress-strain relationship.