Fracture toughness of frozen base and subbase soils in pavement

Temperature distribution in the pavement structure, moisture distribution in granular soils, modulus of the asphalt concrete, and fracture toughness of material in the pavement structure strongly influence the propagation and spacing of thermal contraction cracks. Fracture toughness was determined for frozen sand (subbase layer) and frozen crushed stone (base layer) by adapting established fracture mechanics test procedures recommended in American Society for Testing and Materials standard test method E399-83 for metals. It was established that fracture toughness increases with decreasing temperature and increasing volumetric ice content. For a temperature of –5°C, the fracture toughness of frozen crushed stone increased almost linearly from 0.05 to 0.40 MPa·m0.5 when the volumetric ice content increased from 6 to 14%. For frozen sand, the fracture toughness KIC in a wedge-opening mode increased from 0.04 to 0.70 MPa·m0.5 when the volumetric ice content increased from 8 to 28%. It was also established that the fracture toughness of frozen soil decreases with decreasing soil average grain size according to a logarithmic law.