Failure of Capillary Theory of Frost Damage as Applied to Ceramics

The behavior of solid bars of porous ceramics saturated with water was investigated during the freezing and melting of the water. The length change, differential temperature, and temperature were monitored continuously during the experiments. The behavior of the saturated bars during the freezing of water was analyzed in detail. It was shown that quasi‐equilibrium conditions, as assumed by the capillary theory of frost damage, did not satisfactorily describe the results of these experiments because the plasticity of the ice phase is too low to permit pressure equilibration.