DETECTION OF SILICA SAND LAYER DEFORMATION DUE TO FREEZING AND THAWING USING X-RAY COMPUTER TOMOGRAPHY IMAGES

Abstract

 Frost heaving of soil layers damages structures in and on earth surfaces. Therefore, deformation processes due to freezing and thawing of the soil layers have been widely investigated. X-ray computer tomography was applied to a silica sand layer to nondestructively and three-dimensionally visualize the deformation process. The resultant images were analyzed by a digital volume correlation method to calculate the displacement and the volumetric strain of the sand layer. The deformations due to expansion and shrinkage of water and ice portions in the upper soil layer were detected as the horizontal and vertical plane distributions of the volumetric strain before and after freezing and thawing.