Present situation and prospect of mechanical research on frozen soils in China Yuanming Lai a, ⁎, Xiangtian Xu b , Yuanhong Dong c , Shuangyang Li a a State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China b Institute of Transportation, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010070, China c CCCC First Highway Consultants CO., LTD, Xi'an 710075, China abstract article info Article history: Received 20 August 2012 Accepted 6 December 2012 Keywords: Strength properties of frozen soils Constitutive models for frozen soils Dynamical properties of frozen soils Engineering construction in cold regions and artiﬁcial ground freezing projects require an understanding of the mechanical properties of frozen soils. An understanding of properties such as strength and deformation are important for engineering design purposes. In the past decades of years, because of the increase of the engineering, such as the Qinghai–Tibet Railway (QTR), the Qinghai–Tibet Highway and the Golmud–Lhasa Oilpipe (GLO), constructed in frozen soil regions on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, the study on the material properties of frozen soils in China was being developed quickly, and numerous research results were achieved. This paper summarizes these research fruits in four aspects: (1). Strength property of frozen soils, (2). Deformation behavior of frozen soils, (3). Constitutive models for frozen soils, (4). Dynamical prop- erty of frozen soils. This summary would be helpful for their convenient application in practical engineering, as well as for supplying foundation and developing direction of mechanical property research on frozen soils. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2. Strength property of frozen soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.1. The inﬂuence of soils on strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.1.1. The inﬂuence of soil type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.1.2. The inﬂuence of equivalent moisture content and dry density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.1.3. The inﬂuence of salt content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.2. The inﬂuence of temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.3. The inﬂuence of strain rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.4. The inﬂuence of conﬁning pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.5. The strength criterion of frozen soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3. Deformation property of frozen soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.1. The elastic–plastic behavior of frozen soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.2. The viscous behavior of frozen soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4. Constitutive model of frozen soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 5. Dynamic property of frozen soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 5.1. Dynamic strength property of frozen soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 5.2. Dynamic elastic parameters and damping ratio of frozen soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 5.3. Dynamic creep property of frozen soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 6. Conclusions and prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Cold Regions Science and Technology 87 (2013) 6–18 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 931 4967288; fax: +86 931 8271054. E-mail address: ymlai@lzb.ac.cn (Y. Lai). 7 0165-232X/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2012.12.001 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Cold Regions Science and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/coldregions