Foundations in Frozen Soils: 7.1 General Considerations

7
Foundations in
Frozen Soils
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7.1 General Considerations been measured on steel piles (Penner and Goodrich 1983).
Some typical values for tangential heave forces on piles and col-
Foundations in Seasonally Frozen Ground umns with diameters of 20 to 35 cm are given in Table 2-10.
Piles are generally anchored against frost action, although in
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Foundation design in areas of seasonal frost depends on the
principle, it is also possible to use low-adhesion coatings,
choice of an appropriate foundation depth and protection of
the foundation from the effects of frost, particularly where sleeves, frost-stable backfill, or thermal insulation to control
there is frost-susceptible soil. Under certain conditions, uplift. Unloaded piles typically have to be driven to a depth of 7
harmful frost action effects may arise. For this to occur, frost to 10 m to resist frost jacking (Torgersen 1976b). A detailed dis-
must penetrate down to frost-susceptible soil, and sufficient cussion of this topic is given in Section 7.4.
water must be available to sustain the formation and growth
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Unheated Structures. The depth of frost penetration around

of ice lenses. The lenses usually form parallel to the frost
front, producing forces or soil movements directed at a right foundations does not necessarily correspond to that in the field.
angle to the frost front. These forces can be very large and Heat flow from buildings and thermal frost protection may
can lead to heaving or displacement of all parts of the foun- reduce the frost penetration considerably. In the case of cold
dation as the soil freezes. The magnitude of heave forces is structures, such as unheated garages, the foundation depth can
generally difficult to determine. Because it is impractical to be decreased from the value appropriate for full frost penetra-
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restrain heave fully, one should attempt to eliminate it by

proper design. In practice, this means that any frost-suscepti-
ble soil that will affect the foundation must be either pre-
vented from freezing by proper insulation, or the water sup-
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ply to the freezing front should be reduced by drainage.

Otherwise, such a soil must be excavated and replaced with a
frost-stable material.
Frost damage can also arise from lateral shear forces exerted
by the freezing soil on adjacent foundations, such as founda-
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tion walls, columns, and posts. Frost heave effects on posts are
illustrated by the distorted chain-link fence in Fig. 7-1. The
uplift by lateral frost heaving forces is counteracted by the
foundation weight, by the load it carries, and by anchorage
below the frost line. In certain cases, freezing of frost-suscepti-
ble soils can produce horizontal forces, causing buckling of
basement and retaining walls.
Heave Effects. Some examples of the effects of frost heaving FIGURE 7-1 Frost heave effects are illustrated by the distorted
on foundations are shown in Fig. 7-2. The heave forces are chain link fence.
large. In extreme cases, pressures up to 1 MPa may develop Source: Courtesy Frederick E. Crory, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and
under footings, and adfreeze strengths of up to 0.5 MPa have Engineering Laboratory.
164
Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

FOUNDATIONS IN FROZEN SOILS 165
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FIGURE 7-2 Examples of (a) frost action and (b) frost protec-
tion measures.
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Source: Reproduced with permission from Eranti and Lee 1986. Copyright 1986
McGraw-Hill.
TABLE 7-1 Minimum Foundation Depth with Ground

Insulationa Only at the Corner and Outside an Unheated
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Small Room
Minimum foundation depth (m)
Maximum freezing index Concrete insulated Concrete insulated
[h · °C (°C · days)] externally internallyb
£30,000 (1,250) 0.40 0.40
35,000 (1,458) 0.40 0.50
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40,000 (1,667) 0.50 0.60

45,000 (1,875) 0.60 0.70
50,000 (2,083) 0.70 0.85
55,000 (2,292) 0.85 1.05
60,000 (2,500) 1.00 1.20 FIGURE 7-3 Effect of thermal losses on frost penetration
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around heated buildings in two typical cases: (a) ground-sup-

Source: Farouki 1992. ported slab; (b) elevated slab.
a
Insulation: expanded polystyrene, 30 kg/m3. If the foundation wall has inside Source: Reproduced with permission from Eranti and Lee 1986. Copyright 1986
insulation, the optional ground insulation must also be extended under the
McGraw-Hill.
foundation wall.
b
Light aggregate blocks, 250 mm thick.
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Heated Structures. Thermal losses through the ground are

effective in reducing frost penetration around the foundations
tion by using thermal protection. Frost protection design of in heated buildings. According to Eranti and Lee (1986), the
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cold foundations and floors, based mainly on practice in Scan- situation can be illustrated as in Fig. 7-3 for two typical cases: a
dinavian countries, is discussed in detail by Eranti and Lee building with a ground-supported floor slab and a building
(1986) and Farouki (1992). The foundation depth and require- with only a lightly ventilated crawl space, which remains warm
ment for ground insulation depend on the maximum freezing throughout the year. This heat flow makes it possible to reduce
index of the locality. Some design examples are illustrated in the foundation depth from the value of frost penetration in the
Fig. 7-2. Frost protection is most effective at shallow depths, field. Typical frost-free foundation depths for these two cases
but at least 20 to 30 cm of soil is generally required for cover. according to Eranti and Lee (1986) are given in Table 7-2. The
Minimum foundation depths in Table 7-1 are based on depths are valid only for warm buildings with inside tempera-
ground insulation of expanded polystyrene with a density of 30 ture above 17 °C. If the temperatures are between 17 and 5 °C,
kg/m3 and a thermal conductivity of 0.045 W/mK. For the foundation depth should be increased by 0.1 to 0.2 m. More
extruded polystyrene, the given thicknesses should be multi- details about foundation design for heated buildings in
plied by 0.73. More information on insulation of unheated frost-susceptible soils, based mainly on building codes of Scan-
structures is given in Section 7.5. dinavian countries, can be found in Section 7.5.

166 FROZEN GROUND ENGINEERING
TABLE 7-2 Frost-Free Foundation Depth (m) for Heated Buildings Wider than 4 ma
Part of Design freezing index [h · °C (°C · days)]

Type of foundation foundation 35,000 (1,458) 50,000 (2,083) 65,000 (2,708)
Ground-supported floor slab, total thermal resistance of floor structure Wall 1.0/1.2 1.3/1.5 1.6/1.9
4 (m2 · °C)/W; thermal insulation at outer surface of foundation wall Corner 1.3/1.6 1.6/2.0 2.0/2.4
Ground-supported floor slab, total thermal resistance of floor structure Wall 0.8/1.0 1.1/1.3 1.5/1.8
2 (m2 · °C)/W; thermal insulation at outer surface of foundation wall Corner 1.1/1.4 1.5/1.9 1.9/2.2
–4 3 2
Crawl space, ventilation from outside 6 × 10 m /(m · s), total thermal Wall 1.1/1.4 1.4/1.8 1.8/2.2
resistance of floor slab 4 (m2 · °C)/W Corner 1.4/1.8 1.7/2.2 2.1/2.6
Source: Eranti and Lee 1986, after Mäkelä and Tammirinne 1979.
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The effects of snow are ignored. The smaller foundation depth is used for the fine-grained soils and the larger one for coarse-grained soils and moraines.
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Foundations in Permafrost TABLE 7-3 Basic Data Required for Foundation Design
The design, construction, and maintenance of foundations in Site data
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cold regions must satisfy certain particular constraints, such as Location
(Linell and Lobacz 1980): Climate
Physiography and geology
1. special properties and behavior of soils, rocks, and building Subsurface materials and their characteristics
materials at low temperatures and cyclic freeze-thaw action; Thermal regime
2. occurrence of permafrost, subject to thawing and subsid- Hydrology and drainage
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ence during and after construction;
3. seasonal freezing and thawing of ground associated with Natural
frost heaving and other effects; Introduced
Transportation facilities and access
4. difficulty of excavating and handling of frozen ground;
Construction cost factors
5. limited availability of natural construction materials and
Availability of:
support facilities; and Labor, skills, and know-how
6. adverse conditions of temperature, wind, precipitation, dis- Construction equipment
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tance, accessibility, working seasons, and cost. Support facilities and equipment
Design policies, general criteria, and cost limitations
Table 7-3 presents a list of principal factors and requirements
Technology (state of the art)
related to foundation design, whereas Fig. 7-4 summarizes vari- Facility technical data
ous alternatives for foundation design in cold regions. Gener- Size and design life (permanent and temporary)
ally, the selection of a foundation method depends on the soil Foundation loadings
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behavior on thawing. A soil is considered to be thaw-unstable if Thermal conditions

its total ice content exceeds its water content under normal con- Movement and distortion
solidation conditions. For practical reasons, only one construc- Other requirements
tion method should be considered for each site, and once Source: After Linell and Lobacz 1980.
adopted, should be respected from the beginning of work. More
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details on possible methods are given in the following sections.

This would lead to significant variations in soil density and
Support Conditions Not Affected by Thawing. Frost-stable mostly differential settlements. In addition, fine-grained soils
coarse granular soils and rocks without ice inclusions are the with low permeability tend to be oversaturated after thawing.
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best materials for foundations in cold regions. Frost heaving in Pore pressures generated during thawing may result in a signif-
uniform sands and gravels is generally negligible, and the per- icant loss of shear strength.
meability of these materials is so high that they do not retain
water. On thawing, these materials are stable with good bearing Maintaining the Existing Thermal Regime. This approach is
capacity. The foundation design in such soils should follow the applicable to regions of both continuous and discontinuous
current practice of moderate temperature regions. permafrost. However, safety margins are more reduced for dis-
continuous permafrost, because the natural ground tempera-
Support Conditions Affected by Thawing. Fine-grained soils ture profile for design is normally on the warmer side. This
with or without silt or clay fractions may contain a significant requires that permanent temperature control has to be more
quantity of ice in various forms. Even a fractured rock may severe. The methods applicable in this case have the purpose of
contain massive ice. For such conditions, a new thermal preventing any possible warming of the thermal regime due to
regime, implying an increase in soil temperature, may result in construction. They sometimes offer the possibility of a colder
permafrost degradation and lowering of the permafrost table. design temperature profile, to obtain a bearing capacity

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FIGURE 7-4 Foundation schemes for permafrost areas.
Note: Permanent construction: building or facility designed and constructed to serve a specific purpose over a minimum service life of 25 years with normal mainte-
nance; temporary construction: building or facility designed and constructed at low first cost to serve a specific purpose for a short period of time (usually 5 years or
less) during which the degree of maintenance is not a primary design consideration.
Source: Adapted from Linell and Lobacz 1980.
required to satisfy allowable long-term settlement criteria. Any permafrost thawing due to construction and installation of the
such method is classified as active or passive, depending on structure, permafrost is thawed artificially to the necessary
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whether it consumes energy for maintaining or cooling the depth and consolidated prior to construction. It is essential to
existing thermal regime. estimate the stable thaw depth properly, because if thaw
Among the passive methods, one finds natural convection progresses, further settlements will result, whereas if it
devices (thermosiphons; see Appendix C, Section C.5), thermal regresses, frost heaving may occur.
barriers and insulation, elevated construction (piles, crawl This method is applicable to thin superficial layers or inclu-
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spaces), modification of soil surfaces (snow removal, modified sions of fine-grained soils underlain or surrounded by well-
albedo), and thermal sinks (fills) (Long 1978; Heuer, Long, and drained granular materials. Frozen ground can be thawed fairly
Zarling 1985). Among active methods, one notes artificial rapidly by means of electrodes, hot water, or steam (see Section
freezing (thermopump) and artificial ventilation of footings or 9.2). The energy required depends on the ice content and the
piles during cold periods (Nixon 1985). heat of fusion of the soil. The cost of this method can be prohib-
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itive for large areas of permafrost with high ice contents. If the
Thermal Regime Changes during the Service Life. This construction schedule allows, a relatively economical strategy is
method is applicable in regions of both continuous and discon- to modify the albedo of the permafrost surface—by taking away,
tinuous permafrost. It involves limiting the rate of thawing and for example, a superficial layer of peat, allowing gradual warm-
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thaw settlements to reasonable values, acceptable to the structure. ing of permafrost to occur during a period of several years.
The settlements are allowed to proceed gradually during con- When fine-grained, thaw-settlement-prone permafrost soils
struction and during the service life of the structure. The method are limited to a relatively shallow upper layer, of 5 to 6 m, which is
is normally applicable to homogeneous granular soils, which are underlain by clean, granular thaw-stable soils, it may be possible
less susceptible to freeze and thaw. Although often used in Siberia to remove the undesirable soils and replace them with compacted
(Vyalov and Porkhaev 1976), in North America, this method is fill of clean, granular soils. Design and construction may then fol-
considered to be applicable only to temporary structures. low normal temperate-zone techniques (Linell and Lobacz 1980).
Some typical foundation methods for permafrost areas are
Foundation Support Modification Prior to Construction. illustrated in Fig. 7-5. The loads are transmitted through the active
This approach is applicable only in discontinuous permafrost layer by piles, columns, and footings, or by thaw-stable material.
regions with a relatively warm thermal regime. In this method, Permafrost is prevented from thawing under heated buildings by
frozen ground is either thawed and consolidated or excavated means of ventilation or artificial cooling. Thermal insulation can
and replaced. In the first case, after estimating the amount of be used in this case to slow down the progress of thawing and to

limit the depth of the active layer. Gravel pads are often used
around structures to improve the conditions for construction and
operation, to provide additional thermal protection, and to help
snow control and drainage (Eranti and Lee 1986).
7.2 Shallow Foundations

Selection of Foundation Method
Shallow foundations are normally defined as footings having a
width, B, equal to or greater than their depth, Df , and are placed
at a depth governed by the thickness of the active layer. In suit-
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FIGURE 7-5 Different types of foundations for permafrost
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able soil conditions, they may be placed directly in contact with
the frozen ground, but more often the requirement to maintain conditions.
thermal equilibrium in the frozen ground dictates that shallow Source: Reproduced with permission from Eranti and Lee 1983. Copyright 1983
McGraw-Hill.
foundations be placed on a gravel berm or a layer of suitable
sandy soil with or without insulation. It is also general practice
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to excavate and construct shallow foundations in the fall, and to
allow the cold winter temperatures to freeze back the disturbed
subsoil area. A typical shallow footing is shown in Fig. 7-6 along
with envelopes of the warmest and coldest ground tempera-
tures, which can be determined as described in Chapter 1.
Spread footings have been used in permafrost much less often
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than have piles. The reason for the preference for piles in most
cases was that they are prefabricated and can be mechanically
installed (i.e., they do not need an open excavation). Neverthe-
less, the use of shallow foundations may be more economical in
many cases and could often be an acceptable alternative to piles.
Footings and piers may be founded in perennially frozen
ground below the original ground surface or in a fill pad into
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which the permafrost has risen (Figs. 7-7 and 7-8). If footings
and piers are to perform satisfactorily, special attention must be
given to the provision of a clear airspace below the structure,
and if required, floor and in-ground insulation must be used to FIGURE 7-6 Typical shallow footing on permafrost with maxi-
dissipate heat losses from the structure in order to maintain the mum and minimum temperature envelopes.
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permafrost table at the desired level. In addition, piers and Source: Reproduced from Ladanyi 1983. Copyright 1983 American Society of
footing columns should be protected against adfreeze uplift Civil Engineers.
forces due to frost action. Small structures
with light loads are often founded on sills,
pads, or near-surface footings (Figs. 7-9
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and 7-10). The crawl space below the floor

is generally of the order of 0.5 to 1.0 m, but
may be larger under wide heated structures
to prevent degradation of permafrost.
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A lifted floor system with pile or footing

foundations becomes quite expensive for
heated heavily loaded large structures, such
as garages, hangars, and oil tanks. An insu-
lated ground-supported slab provided with
artificial cooling is a preferable solution
(Figs. 7-11 and 7-12). The traditional
method is to open the ducts in the fall with
the arrival of colder temperatures. The air
intakes are generally closed in the spring
when temperatures approach 0 °C and FIGURE 7-7 Typical footings in permafrost, embedded in a thick, insulated gravel
opened again after the beginning of the pad placed on the ground surface.
freezing season (Fig. 7-13). The required Source: Reproduced from Johnston 1981.

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FIGURE 7-8 Typical footings in permafrost, placed in backfilled pits exca-
vated below the original ground surface.
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Source: Reproduced from Johnston 1981.
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FIGURE 7-9 Design of footings on permafrost; typical timber FIGURE 7-10 Building on a thick gravel pad with crawl space,
sill surface foundation. Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.
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Source: Reproduced from Johnston 1981. Source: Courtesy of Branko Ladanyi, Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal.
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FIGURE 7-11 Typical insulated concrete floor slab placed on a duct-ventilated com-
pacted fill foundation.
Source: Reproduced from Johnston 1981.

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FIGURE 7-12 Construction of a ventilated gravel fill, Inuvik, FIGURE 7-13 Oil tank supported by a ventilated gravel fill,
Northwest Territory, Canada. Inuvik, Northwest Territory, Canada; ventilation ducts are
closed during the summer.
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Source: Courtesy of Branko Ladanyi, Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal.
pad thickness is determined on the basis of thaw

depth in the summer. A thorough discussion of
ventilated pad design was presented by Nixon
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(1978b). Active cooling systems using thermosi-
phons (Fig. 7-14 and Appendix C, Section C.5)
provide a more efficient alternative to cooling
ducts in very large heated structures, especially in
discontinuous permafrost areas.
As was noted by Eranti and Lee (1986),
numerous failures have been experienced when
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protection of permafrost under heated structures

was based solely on thermal insulation, because
the thaw bulb eventually penetrates into the fro-
zen ground, causing uneven thaw settlements.
However, for small structures in cold permafrost,
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Nixon (1983) has shown that insulation com-

bined with natural lateral cooling can reduce the
thaw bulb to a reasonable depth. For example,
according to this theory (Fig. 7-15), a 20-m-wide
heated building with a floor surface temperature
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of 20 °C, built on permafrost with a mean tem- FIGURE 7-14 Slab on gravel pad refrigerated by heat pipes.
perature of –8 °C, would require about 20 cm of Source: Reproduced with permission from Hayley 1982. Copyright 1982 National Research Coun-
polystyrene insulation. The solution with a gravel cil of Canada.
pad, a ground-supported floor and sufficient
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floor insulation thickness may then become

acceptable. Insulation: ki = 0.035 W/mK
Freezing point of soil: Tf = 0 °C
■ EXAMPLE 7.2-1: Using the equations in Fig. 7-15, calculate
Solution:
the thickness of insulation required to prevent thawing of per-
mafrost beneath a heated building 20-m-wide and 40-m-long if k f (Tf - Tg ) 2.80(0 + 8)
the floor temperature is held at 15.5 °C while the mean annual b- = = -0.76
temperature of permafrost is –8 °C. The thermal conductivities ku (Ts - Tf ) 1.9(15.5 - 0)
of the soil and the insulation (extruded polystyrene) are, For a circular foundation:
respectively:
Unfrozen soil: ku = 1.9 W/mK p Ê 1ˆ
ac = = 0.5167
Frozen soil: kf = 2.8 W/mK 8 ÁË b ˜¯

5. Modify the footing size or depth when settlements or settle-

ment rates are considered to be excessive.
Thaw penetration and frost depth were discussed above.
Other chapters cover most of the basic data and methods for
determining the ground thermal regime (Chapter 1); mechani-
cal properties and their determination from laboratory tests
(Chapter 5); and in situ tests (Chapter 10), where field investi-
gations are also covered. As the mechanical properties of frozen
ground are temperature dependent, the ground temperature
profile is one of the primary factors to be considered in the
design of shallow foundations. It is common practice in design
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to use the envelope of maximum temperatures, as is shown in
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Fig. 7-6, which can be determined from Eq. (1.2-4). Because
maximum ground temperatures do not occur simultaneously
at all depths, this temperature profile is conservative, leading to
overprediction of settlements and settlement rates.
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Bearing Capacity
In unfrozen soils, the allowable pressure for a shallow founda-
FIGURE 7-15 Required insulation thickness to prevent thaw-
tion is usually based on safety against general soil failure and on
ing of permafrost beneath a heated building; ki, kf, and ku are the tolerable foundation settlement. Similar criteria are also
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respectively thermal conductivities of insulation, frozen soil, applicable to shallow foundations in frozen soils, with the main
and thawed soil; Tf is the freezing point of soil. differences that the strength of such soils is temperature depen-
Source: Reproduced with permission from Nixon 1983. Copyright 1983 dent and that the main source of foundation settlements is
National Academies Press. deviatoric creep rather than consolidation.
Due to general nonlinearity of the time-dependent frozen soil
For a strip foundation: response to load, the Boussinesq theory of stress distribution
(based on linear elasticity) and the Prandtl–Terzaghi bearing
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pb capacity theory (based on rigid-plastic soil behavior) are not

ast = 12 cot = 0.5 cot(0.6783) = 0.6205 strictly applicable to frozen soils. These theories are, nevertheless,
2(1 + b)
often used in preliminary design of shallow footings in permafrost.
For a rectangular surface B × L, a linear interpolation formula Among several bearing capacity formulas used in connec-
may be used: tion with shallow footings in unfrozen soils, only those pub-
lished by Meyerhof (1951, 1953) and presented by Bowles
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È Êa ˆ B˘ (1988) will be mentioned here. The ultimate bearing pressure

a = ast Í1 + Á c - 1˜ ˙ qult can be expressed in the form used by Terzaghi, which
Î Ë ast ¯ L˚
includes three terms—cohesion, surcharge, and self-weight
= 0.6205[1 + (0.8327 - 1)0.5] = 0.5686 terms—as follows:
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Vertical loads:
Then the required thickness of insulation is
qult = cN c sc dc + qN q sq dq + 0.5gBN g s g dg (7.2-1)
ki Ê 0.035 ˆ
hi = B a = 20 Á 0.5686 = 0.21 m
ku Ë 1.9 ˜¯ Inclined loads:
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qult = cN c dc ic + qN q dqiq + 0.5gBN g dg ig (7.2-2)

Design of Shallow Foundations
where Nq , Nc , and Ng are the bearing capacity factors for a strip
Design procedures used for footings involve the following steps:
footing, defined by
1. Select the footing depth based on various factors discussed
Nq = Nf exp(p tan f) (7.2-3)
in the preceding section.
2. Estimate the warmest temperatures below the footing for Nc = (Nq – 1) cot f (7.2-4)
determining relevant soil properties.
3. Select a footing size using bearing capacity theory to give a Ng = (Nq – 1) tan (1.4f) (7.2-5)
designed factor of safety.
4. Carry out a settlement analysis using the appropriate consti- 1 + sin f Ê fˆ
Nf = = tan2 Á 45 + ˜ (7.2-6)
tutive relationship for the foundation soil. 1 - sin f Ë 2¯

For f = 0, Nc = p + 2 = 5.14, Nq = 1, and Ng = 0. The shape fac- 1978) is applicable primarily to deep foundations. It was ini-
tors are given by tially thought that this theory would give reduced bearing val-
ues for shallow foundations. However, experimental evidence
B on ice (Sego 1980; Sego and Morgenstern 1985) indicates that
sc = 1 + 0.2N f (for any f) (7.2-7)
L burial depth has little effect on the bearing pressure.
According to the cavity expansion theory, the ultimate bear-
B ing pressure for a frozen soil that has reached the start of ter-
sq = s g = 1 + 0.1N f (for f > 10°) (7.2-8)
L tiary creep, and whose strength behavior can be described by a
power law [Eq. (5.3-40)], can for a vertical load be expressed by
sq = sg = 1 (for f = 0) (7.2-9)
qult = poNq + cNc (7.2-16)
The depth factors are
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where po is the average original total pressure at the footing
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dc = 1 + 0.2 N f (for any f) (7.2-10) level, c is the time- and temperature-dependent cohesion, and
B Nq and Nc are the bearing capacity factors. For example, with f
= 0 and Nq = 1, Nc (Ladanyi and Johnston 1974; Ladanyi 1975)
D
dq = dg = 1 + 0.1 N f (for f > 0°) (7.2-11) for a circular footing, is given by
B
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dq = dg = 1 (for f = 0) (7.2-12) 4Ê 2 ˆ
N c = 1 + Á n + ln ˜ (7.2-17)
3Ë 3 e f ¯
The inclination factors are
2
and for a strip footing,
Ê q ˆ (for any f) (7.2-13)
ic = iq = Á 1 -
Ë 90∞ ˜¯ Nc =
2 È
1 + n - ln e f 3 ˘ ( ) (7.2-18)
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3Î ˚
2
Ê q∞ ˆ (for f > 10°) (7.2-14)
i g = Á1 - ˜ where n is the exponent of stress in the power law creep equa-
Ë f∞ ¯ tion and ef is the failure strain, corresponding to the strain at
ig = 0 (for f = 0) (7.2-15) the minimum creep rate or at the start of tertiary creep. For a
frozen soil with internal friction, such as an ice-saturated dense
The symbols B, L, and D denote the footing width, length, and frozen sand, the same theory gives, for a circular footing,
depth below the ground surface, respectively; q is the angle of
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inclination of the resultant force with respect to the vertical; n -1 1

Ê nˆ k Ê 2ˆ k n
and f is the soil friction angle. N q = (1 + sin f)Á 1 - ˜
Ë k¯ ÁË ˜¯ (kIr tan f) k (7.2-19)
In frozen soils, these equations can be used as a first approx- 3
imation, provided it is recognized (1) that the analysis is made and for a strip footing,
in terms of total stresses (i.e., q– is replaced by q = gD, with g =
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n -1 n 1
total unit weight of the overburden soils), and (2) that the Ê nˆ v Ê 2 ˆ v Ê 1 ˆ v
cohesion c varies with temperature and time under load. In the N q = (1 + tan f cot a)Á 1 - ˜ ÁË 3 ˜¯ ÁË 3 ˜¯
Ë v¯
same manner, the angle f in the formulas above, because of n
very slow consolidation of frozen soil, corresponds to its ¥ (0.75vIr tan f ) v (7.2-20)
unconsolidated-undrained value for the given frozen soil den-
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sity. Some typical values of the angle f for three different frozen The corresponding values of Nc are obtained from the rela-
soil types are: sand, f = 29 to 37 degrees, silts f = 15 to 25 tion valid for a Coulomb soil,
degrees, and clays f = 0 to 10 degrees. When the compression Nc = (Nq – 1)cot f (7.2-21)
strength of frozen soil is found as described in Chapter 5 as a
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function of time (or strain rate) and temperature, the corre- In these equations
sponding cohesion can be determined from Eq. (5.3-46). 3N f 3
All of the formulas above are based on the assumption of a k= = (1 + csc f) (7.2-22)
2(N f - 1) 4
plastic type of soil failure with the formation of distinct failure
surfaces. This type of failure has only rarely been observed in
2N f
frozen soil, usually being replaced by a local shear failure v= = 1 + csc f (7.2-23)
involving mass movement in approximately radial directions Nf - 1
below the footing. This observation has led to development of
and Ir is the rigidity index defined by
the cavity expansion model for approximating creep settlement
and bearing failure of footings in frozen soil. 1
4(N f ) 2
The cavity expansion theory, based on nonlinear isochro- Ir = (7.2-24)
1 È Êp ˆ ˘
nous stress-strain and strength curves of frozen soil (Ladanyi 3e f n Í1 + Á o ˜ tan f ˙
and Johnston 1974; Ladanyi 1975; Phukan and Andersland Î Ë c ¯ ˚

l
ria
ate
dM
FIGURE 7-16 Circular footing: values of bearing capacity fac-
tor Nc for f ≥ 0 and for n = 1 and 3. FIGURE 7-17 Strip footing: values of bearing capacity factor
Source: Reproduced with permission from Ladanyi and Johnston 1974. Copy- Nc for f ≥ 0 and for n = 1 and 3.
right 1974 Canadian Geotechnical Journal.
hte
Source: Reproduced with permission from Ladanyi 1975. Copyright 1975

Canadian Geotechnical Journal.
For example, Figs. 7-16 and 7-17 show values of the factor Nc
where FS is a safety factor and qult is the ultimate bearing capac-
for circular and strip footings, respectively, and for 1 £ Ir £ 100,
ity of the frozen soil at a given time after load application.
n = 1 and 3, and for various values of f, starting with f = 0.
In unfrozen soils, values of FS equal to 2 or 3 are usually
For rectangular footings with the width B and length L, the
rig
adopted. These values are also applicable to short-term failure

shape factors, applicable to the strip footing bearing capacity
of footings in frozen soils. According to Vialov (1959) and Tsy-
factor, are
tovich (1975), when the long-term bearing capacity corre-
Ê N c ,circle ˆ B sponding to the service life of the structure is divided by a fac-
sc = 1 + Á - 1˜ (7.2-25) tor of safety equal to 1.5, failure will not occur, and in hard
py
Ë N c ,strip ¯L frozen soils creep settlement will be negligible. In plastic frozen

sc -1 soils, substantial creep settlement may occur and should be
sq = sc - (7.2-26) considered in design. When the design bearing pressure equals
N c ,strip
or exceeds the long-term strength, based on the service life of
Co
When f ≥ 25 degrees, sc ª sq . From Eqs. (7.2-19) to (7.2-21), it is the structure, use of a factor of safety in terms of ultimate bear-
found that the ratio Nc,circle /Nc, strip increases with increasing ing capacity is not appropriate; instead, the design should be
rigidity index Ir , friction angle f, and the creep exponent n based on a permissible settlement amount or rate. An alterna-
from about 1.10 at f = 0, n = 1, and Ir = 5, to about 1.90 at f = tive method for introducing a margin of safety into foundation
10 degrees, n = 5, and Ir = 100. design is to determine the frozen soil strength, not for the ser-
The bearing capacity formulas presented above can be used vice life of the structure, but for a longer period of time, say,
for determining footing size, based on the requirement that twice the service life. For a (c, f)-soil, this would imply calcu-
there be adequate safety against failure for the dead load plus lating the cohesion from Eq. (5.3-46), in which the uniaxial
maximum live loads. The safe or allowable soil pressure qa is compression strength, sfu , is determined from Eq. (5.3-48) for
defined as an average strain rate of ė1 ª ef /t f , where tf = 2tservice.
qult ■ EXAMPLE 7.2-2 : Estimate the bearing capacity 20 years

qa = (7.2-27)
Fs after load application for a square footing embedded in frozen

silt at a temperature of –2 °C. The average total ground pressure All these deformations together contribute to settlement at
at the footing level is 60 kPa. The frozen silt is ice-rich and is any load, their relative influence depending on the soil state, its
characterized by the creep parameters b = 1, n = 3, w = 0.37, temperature, and load level. Of the five types of deformation
and sc0 = 0.103 MPa at ėc = 10–5 h–1. For the calculations, leading to foundation settlement, the two reversible ones, 1 and
assume that f = 0, and the failure strain ef = 0.10. 3, are, under ordinary service loads, very small in comparison
Solution: Using Eqs. (5.3-40) and (5.3-20), compute sfu with the irreversible ones under 2, 4, and 5. Among the last
three, the instantaneous-plastic deformation or bearing failure,
1
w
q ˆ Ê ef ˆ
n 2, can be determined by conventional unfrozen soil mechanics
Ê
s fu = sco Á 1 + ˜ Á methods by taking into account the fact that short-term cohe-
Ë qc ¯ Ë ec t f ˜¯ sion of frozen soil is temperature dependent. Special consider-
Ê 0.10 ˆ
1
3 ations are necessary if one wants to predict the time-dependent
= 0.103(1 + 2)0.37 ÁË -5 ˜ settlement of a foundation from basic consolidation and creep
l
10 ¥ 20 ¥ 365 ¥ 24 ¯
ria
properties of the frozen bearing strata.
= 0.05955 MPa
Creep and Consolidation. In a frozen soil, distortional creep
s fu is considered to be the main source of the delayed response to
cu = = 0.02977 MPa ª 30 kPa
2 stress increase, whereas consolidation is usually thought to be
ate
of secondary importance. Investigations by Vialov (1959) and
Then, from Eq. (7.2-17),
Brodskaia (1962) show that for relatively warm frozen soils,
containing large amounts of unfrozen water, consolidation may
4È Ê 2 ˆ˘ 4È Ê 2 ˆ˘
N c = 1 + Ín + ln Á be substantial and should be taken into account in all allowable
3 ÍÎ Ë 3e f ˜¯ ˙ = 1 + 3 Í3 + ln ÁË 3 ¥ 0.10 ˜¯ ˙ = 7.53
˙˚ Î ˚ bearing pressure determinations. According to Vyalov and
Porkhaev (1976), such warm or “plastic frozen” soils include
dM
Equation (7.2-16) gives
silty sands at T > – 0.3 °C, sandy loams at T > –1.0 °C, and clays
qult = (60 × 1.0) + (30 × 7.53) = 285 kPa at T > –1.5 °C. At temperatures lower than these, the same soils
are called “hard frozen” and consolidate very slowly.
If, for safety reasons, the service life is doubled (i.e., tf = 40 years At this time, very little is known about the laws governing
instead of 20 years), compute sfu = 47.26 kPa, cu = 23.63 kPa, the consolidation of frozen soils under load and their tempera-
and qult = (60 × 1.0) + (23.63 × 7.53) = 238 kPa, which contains ture dependence; hence, a quasi-single-phase approach is used
a factor of safety of 2 with respect to time to creep failure.
hte
to predict foundation settlements. It would be better to be able

to separate the settlements due to consolidation from those due
Settlement Considerations to creep. For any such quasi-single-phase approach for calculat-
ing foundation settlements to be valid, the selected constitutive
Sources of Settlement. When a foundation load is applied to equation must properly represent the total delayed response of
a frozen soil, several short-term phenomena occur and some the frozen soil under the applied load. This requirement for
rig
long-term deformations start developing. Following Vialov plastic frozen soils that contain large amounts of unfrozen
(1959), five types of deformation may be expected to occur: water can be met only if the applied stress paths in the tests
coincide with those expected in the field. The time of testing
1. Instantaneous-elastic (reversible), due to the elastic deforma- must be sufficiently long so that some consolidation will permit
tion of the soil skeleton, ice, unfrozen water, and gases. an appropriate extrapolation of strains.
py
2. Instantaneous-plastic (irreversible), due either to the struc- To predict long-term frozen soil behavior under a given
tural collapse of an unsaturated frozen soil under load with stress increment, it is essential that the position of the
the expulsion of air, or to the plastic bearing capacity failure long-term applied stress relative to the long-term failure sur-
of the foundation soil. face of the frozen soil in principal stress space be correctly esti-
Co
3. Viscoelastic (reversible), as a consequence of the reversible mated. Figure 7-18 shows schematically traces of short- and
phase transitions in ice. long-term failure surfaces, in the diagonal (s2 = s3) plane of
4. Consolidation (irreversible), due to the delayed processes of principal stress space, such as one would expect for a plastic
air and unfrozen water migration under pressure gradients. frozen soil under triaxial test conditions. For any loading path
The latter includes both water existing before load applica- terminating in a point such as A below the long-term strength
tion and that formed due to phase change at ice particle con- surface, one can expect to get an attenuating creep of the frozen
tacts after the load is applied. soil, while for a loading path terminating beyond the long-term
5. Creep or viscoplastic (irreversible), arising from irreversible strength surface, point B, the creep will be of non-attenuating
displacements of solid particles governed by the flow of pore type and it may finish in failure after a sufficient time. In any
ice. Depending on load level and boundary conditions, case, the shape of the time-settlement curve will be affected by
creep settlement of a foundation may be attenuating, sta- the amount of consolidation involved in the total response. The
tionary, or accelerating, and may lead to a delayed bearing magnitude will depend on the soil unfrozen water content and
failure. shape of the loading path. Quite generally, considering com-

foundation loads (which usually exceed the true long-term

strength of the soil), one can expect, in most cases, settlement
of a non-attenuating type. The available evidence shows that
such settlement may be either of a steady-state type, when
consolidation is absent, or remains nonlinear with time, when
consolidation represents an important portion of the total
response.
Frozen Soil Properties Needed for Settlement Evaluation.

Under nonfailure conditions, the behavior of a frozen soil can
be considered similar to that described by the nonlinear Max-
l
well body, with a linear or nonlinear spring in series with a
ria
nonlinear dashpot. If a constant stress increment is applied to
such a body, the resulting strain will be composed of an instan-
taneous portion and a time-dependent (creep) portion.
If the instantaneous portion of total strain is found to be
governed by Hooke’s law, the methods for determining elastic
ate
settlement of an ice-saturated frozen soil will not differ from
those in unfrozen soils, provided that proper account is taken
of the variation of Hooke’s parameters, E and m, with soil tem-
perature below the foundation.
The instantaneous strain or settlement may also contain a
FIGURE 7-18 Traces of time-dependent strength surfaces for plastic component. In an ice-saturated frozen soil, this may
dM
frozen soil in diagonal plane of principal stress space. happen if an instantaneous plastic bearing capacity failure is
Source: Reproduced with permission from Ladanyi 1975. Copyright 1975 produced shortly after load application. In an ice-poor unsat-
Canadian Geotechnical Journal. urated frozen soil, such as in a loose sand weakly cemented by
ice, instantaneous settlement may occur because of the plastic
collapse of the sand structure, leading to local compaction.
bined effects of consolidation and creep, one can anticipate that To predict the instantaneous response to load of a shallow
an increasing amount of consolidation will generally contribute
hte
footing founded on an ice-saturated frozen soil, one will need

to nonlinearity of the time-settlement curves. the short-term values of the deformation parameters, E and m,
As for the relevant frozen soil mechanical properties, some gen- and the corresponding short-term soil strength. These can be
eral conclusions appropriate to foundation design are as follows: determined either on laboratory samples, by means of rate- and
temperature-controlled triaxial tests or by performing certain
1. The true long-term or lower-bound strength of a frozen soil
field tests, such as borehole pressuremeter or static cone pene-
can be defined as the strength that the frozen soil would
rig
tration tests (see Section 10.3).

attain if stressed under drained conditions for a very long
The relevant instantaneous settlement values for unsatur-
period of time. This strength cannot be lower than that
ated loose frozen soils can be predicted on the basis of ordinary
which the same soil would attain if stressed unfrozen in the
oedometer tests on undisturbed frozen samples or on the basis
same manner. This implies that the true long-term strength
of relative density values if the bearing soil is a loose ice-unsat-
py
of a frozen sand cannot be lower than its unfrozen effective

urated sand. In any case, the instantaneous settlement due to
shear strength, in terms of c ¢ and f¢. This statement does not
structural collapse cannot be greater than that of the same soil
apply to very ice-rich soils in which the soil particles are
in the unfrozen state.
completely surrounded by ice. The behavior of such soils
under load is similar to that of polycrystalline ice, whose In the primary creep range, it is usually assumed that the
Co
true long-term strength under ordinary permafrost temper- total creep strain e(c) can be expressed as a product of indepen-
atures is known to be close to zero. dent functions of stress, time, and temperature, as in Eq.
(5.3-16), which is repeated here,
2. In the design of foundations, the true long-term strength is
considered to be much too conservative and is usually n
Ê s ˆ Ê e t ˆ
b
replaced by a service life or operational strength that is e(qc ) = Á e ˜ Á c ˜ (7.2-28)
obtained by extrapolating the creep data to appropriate time Ë sc q ¯ Ë b ¯
intervals, obtained by multiplying the required service life
with, in the simplest case,
by a factor of safety. This operational strength should not
fall below the true long-term strength of the soil defined w
under conclusion 1. Ê qˆ
sc q = sco Á 1 + ˜ (7.2-29)
Ë qc ¯
In light of these conclusions, it appears that for ice-satu-
rated soils at usual permafrost temperatures and at ordinary as defined by Eq. (5.3-20).

For calculating creep settlements of isolated footings under continue settling as long as s1 > s3, whereas according to the
vertical loads, Eq. (7.2-28) can be written as Eq. (5.3-54), valid second one, Eq. (7.2-32), there will be no creep settlement if s1/
for the case of cylindrical symmetry and applicable to circular s3 £ Nf. Note that for strip footings, Eqs. (7.2-30) and (7.2-32)
footings: should be multiplied by ( 3 / 2)n+1, valid for the plane strain
case.
n
Ê s - s3 ˆ Ê ec t ˆ
b
e1 = Á 1 Á ˜ (7.2-30)
Ë sc q ˜¯ Ë b ¯ Methods for Evaluating Creep Settlement. To estimate the
creep settlement of shallow footings in permafrost, the method
where for a frictional, ice-rich soil, most often used is that described by Linell and Lobacz (1980),
which can take into account the effect on creep behavior of
sc q = sc q + s3 (N fc - 1) (7.2-31) temperature variation below the footing. In this method, illus-
trated in Figure 7-19, after determining the soil types and max-
l
with the definition of angle fc , given in Chapter 5. For a fric-
ria
imum temperature envelope below the footing, the soil beneath
tional ice-poor soil with f = constant and c variable with time, the footing is separated into a convenient number of individual
one can write, based on Eq. (5.3-57), layers, each corresponding to a particular soil and maximum
n
temperature. The settlement si of any layer i of thickness Dzi is
Ê s1 - N f s3 ˆ Ê ec t ˆ b then
e1 = Á (7.2-32)
ate
Ë sc q ˜¯ ÁË b ˜¯
si = Dzi e1,i (7.2-33)
As was noted in Chapter 5, the main difference between the where e1,i is calculated from Eqs. (7.2-30) and (7.2-32) for a
two assumptions is that according to Eq. (7.2-30), there is no given soil and temperature, in which one should substitute, sl
true long-term strength, whereas according to Eq. (7.2-32), the = Dsz and s3 = Dsx , calculated from the Boussinesq theory. In
true long-term strength is frictional and is given by Eq. Eq. (7.2-31), s3 is the total horizontal stress s3; thus
dM
(5.3-58). In creep settlement calculations, this means that
according to the first assumption, Eq. (7.2-30), a footing would s3 = ph + Dsx ª gH + Dsx (7.2-34)
hte
rig
py
Co
FIGURE 7-19 Information needed for creep settlement evaluation. Soil profile and diagrams of temperature and
stress distribution (original units: feet, tons/ft2, and degrees Fahrenheit, retained).
Source: Reproduced from Linell and Lobacz 1980.

The vertical stress s1 = sz at depth z below the center of a uni- Methods for evaluating basic creep parameters in the pre-
formly loaded circular footing is calculated using the Bouss- ceding equations from laboratory and field tests are described
inesq theory, thus in the literature and in Chapters 5 and 10. Such parameters
may be valid for limited periods. Long-term extrapolation of
Ï 2 - 2¸
3
data for settlement prediction should keep in mind that under
Ô È Êaˆ ˘ Ô
sz = q Ì1 - Í1 + Á ˜ ˙ ˝ (7.2-35) favorable temperature conditions frozen soil may consolidate
Ô ÍÎ Ë z ¯ ˙˚ Ô with time, bringing about changes in the creep rate and some
Ó ˛
gain in strength. Very little is presently known on how to pre-
where a is the footing radius and q is the uniformly distributed dict these consolidation-related effects.
footing pressure. The same equation can be used for a square
footing of area A, by transforming it into an equivalent circle ■ EXAMPLE 7.2-3: Determine the creep settlement of a
with radius a = (A/p)1/2. Alternatively, approximate values of square footing 1.85 m by 1.85 m, illustrated in Figure 7-21. The
l
vertical stresses can be obtained from the formula valid for a
ria
soil profile is described in Table 7-4. The permafrost surface is
concentrated load at 1.54 m and the footing is placed at a depth of 2.46 m to allow
for some future variation in the thaw front. Other data include
3 Q Q a mean annual permafrost temperature Tms = –2.78 °C. Creep
sz = ª 0.477 2 (7.2-36)
2p z 2 z parameters in Eq. (7.2-30) for the frozen silt include b = 0.15, n
ate
where = 2.04, w = 0.87, sco = 2.25 MPa (for ėc = 10–5 h–1), and f = 0.
Solution: Calculate the envelope of the warmest permafrost
Q = pr2q (7.2-37) temperatures, using Eq. (1.2-4):
For uniformly loaded rectangular surfaces, x by y, the value of È Ê p ˆ˘
sz below the corner at any depth can be determined from T (z ) = Tms Í1 - exp Á ˙
Ë aP ˜¯ ˙˚
dM ÍÎ
sz = qoI (7.2-38)
where the influence value I for different ratios of n = y/z
and m = x/z are plotted in Figure 7.20. In creep settle-
ment calculations using Boussinesq stresses, the hori-
zontal stresses are usually neglected.
Another method, based on cavity expansion theory
hte
(Ladanyi and Johnston 1974; Ladanyi 1975) and valid

for homogeneous frozen soil conditions below the foot-
ing, has been verified by measurements reported by
Nixon (1978a) and Sego and Morgenstern (1985).
According to this theory, the creep settlement, s, of a
uniformly loaded footing can be approximated by
rig
n
Ê q ˆ Ê ec ˆ b
b
s = aI Á Á ˜ t (7.2-39)
Ë sc q ˜¯ Ë b ¯
py
where a = B/2 is the half width or footing radius,

whereas, for a circular footing
n
Ê 3ˆ (7.2-40)
I = Ic = Á ˜
Co
Ë 2n ¯
and for a strip footing
n n
Ê ˆÊ ˆ Ê ˆ
I = I st = Á p 3 ˜ Á 3 ˜ ª 1.36 Á 3 ˜ (7.2-41)
Ë 4 ¯Ë n ¯ Ë n ¯
For a rectangular footing with length L and width B, the

influence factor I can be determined by interpolation,
thus
FIGURE 7-20 Influence value for vertical stress beneath the corner of a
È ÊI ˆ B˘ uniformly loaded rectangular area, Boussinesq case.
I = I st Í1 + Á c - 1˜ ˙ (7.2-42)
Î Ë I st ¯ L˚ Source: Reproduced from Department of the Navy 1982.

TABLE 7-4 Soil Profile for Example 7.2-3

Depth Group Physical and thermal
(m) symbol Soil description properties
0.0 ML Black, slightly organic, sandy rd = 1,361 kg/m3
Nbe silt, silt, frozen; no visible r = 1,842 kg/m3
segregation w = 33%
ku = 1.18 W/m · K
kf = 2.08 W/m · K
7.62 SP Brown, uniform medium rd = 1,682 kg/m3
Nbn sand; no visible w = 20%
segregation bonded kf = 3.46 W/m · K
l
18.29 Bedrock
ria
where T(z) is the temperature at depth z below the top of the
permafrost, Tms the mean annual temperature of the permafrost
ate
in the depth interval affected by the foundation, a the thermal
diffusivity, and P the period = 365 days. Using data from Table
7-4, one gets for the frozen sandy silt cvf = 1.92 MJ/m3K and kf =
2.08 W/mK. Now compute
kf 2.08 ¥ 86, 400

dM
a= = = 0.094 m2 /day
cvf 1.92 ¥ 106
For the frozen sand, c vf = 1.9 MJ/m3K and kf = 3.46 W/mK.

Now compute
3.46 ¥ 86, 400

a= = 0.16 m2 /day
1.9 ¥ 106
hte
A correction for the layered soil system in ground temperature

calculations can be made by converting the sand layer to a ther-
mally equivalent silt layer, by multiplying the thickness of the
sand layer with the square root of the diffusivity ratio:
rig
1 1
Ê asilt ˆ 2
Ê 0.093 ˆ 2
=Á = 0.77
ÁË a ˜
sand ¯ Ë 0.16 ˜¯
Thus 1 m of sand is equivalent to 0.77 m of silt with reference

py
to temperature under transient conditions. Maximum temper-

atures calculated by Eq. (1.2-4) in silt and sand are plotted in
Fig. 7-21b.
Vertical stress sz beneath the square footing loaded by a uni-
Co
form vertical load qo = 950 kPa can be calculated by Eq.

(7.2-35). For the square footing with area A = 1.85 × 1.85 = FIGURE 7-21 Footing design: (a) loads and general data; (b)
warmest ground temperatures.
3.4225 m2, the equivalent radius a = 1.04375 m. Calculated
Source: Reproduced with permission from Phukan and Andersland 1978.
stresses at different depths and their average values for each
Copyright 1978 McGraw-Hill.
selected layer are shown in Table 7-5.
For calculating creep settlements, Eq. (7.2-30) with the
parameters given for frozen silt becomes (neglecting s3 for
2.04
additional safety) (units in h and MPa) Ês ˆ
e1 = Á z ˜ 0.23637t 0.15
2.04 0.15
Ë sc q ¯
Ès 0.87 ˘
Ê 10-5 t ˆ
e1 = Í z ÊÁ 1 + q ˆ˜ ˙ ÁË ˜ with
Î 2.25 Ë 1 ¯ ˚ 0.15 ¯
or sc q = 2.25(1 + q)0.87

TABLE 7-5 Computation of Creep Settlements
Depth from Depth from Depth below Layer Vertical stress, sz Creep Creep
ground top of permafrost the footing thickness, Dz Temperature (°C) (MPa) sc 0a strain, settlement, e1Dz
surface (m) (m) (m) (m) Recorded Average Recorded Average (MPa) e1 (m)
3.66 1.83 1.22 –1.187 0.533
0.61 –1.322 0.430 4.683 0.0100 0.0001
4.27 2.44 1.83 –1.457 0.327
0.61 –1.569 0.272 5.113 0.0033 0.0020
4.88 3.05 2.44 –1.681 0.217
1.22 –1.852 0.161 5.600 0.0009 0.0011
l
6.10 4.27 3.66 –2.022 0.105
ria
1.53 –2.016 0.080 5.879 0.0002 0.0003
7.63 5.80 5.19 –2.304 0.055 S = 0.0095
ª 1 cm
a
For ėc = 10–5 h–1.
ate
For 10 years t = 10 × 365 × 24 = 87,600 h, giving t 0.15 = 5.51284 Piles embedded in permanently frozen ground derive the
and el = (sz /sc q)2.04 × 1.30395. Calculated creep strains are major portion of their load-bearing capacity from adfreeze
shown in Table 7-5. bond developed between the soil or backfill (slurry) and the
For comparison, compute the creep settlement using Eq. pile lateral surface, whereas only a small fraction of their capac-
dM
(7.2-39) for an average permafrost temperature of –2 °C. For q ity at service loads is due to their end bearing. The end bearing
= 2 °C, sc q = 5.852 MPa, and I = (3/2n)n = 0.53405, compute is normally counted only where the pile end attains an ice-free
bedrock or dense thaw-stable granular material.
Ê ec t ˆ Ê -5 87, 600 ˆ
b 0.15
ÁË ˜¯ = ÁË 10 ¥ ˜ = 1.30305
b 0.15 ¯ Pile Types
hte
n 2.04 Pile types used in frozen ground generally include timber, steel,
Ê q ˆ Ê 0.950 ˆ
ÁË s ˜¯ = ÁË ˜ = 0.02451 concrete, and composite (steel/concrete) piles. The selection of
cq 5.852 ¯ a particular pile type depends on various factors, including soil
giving type, temperature profiles, loads to be carried, availability of
material, construction equipment, and the cost of transporta-
n tion and pile installation.
Ê q ˆ Ê ec t ˆ
b
rig
s = aI Á ˜ Á ˜
Ë sc q ¯ Ë b ¯ Timber Piles. Timber piles are generally the least expensive
= 1.04375 ¥ 0.53405 ¥ 0.02451 ¥ 1.30305 solution in some northern countries, where they are locally
= 0.0178 m available. Local timber, generally spruce, Douglas fir, or pine, is
most commonly used. They come in lengths from 6 to 15 m
py
This is higher than the previous answer, because the cavity and diameters from 150 to 250 mm at the top and 300 to 350
expansion model considers not only a vertical compression but mm at the butt. The timber piles usually remain well preserved
also a radial expulsion of soil below the footing. in permafrost, but they must be protected in the active layer
against deterioration and decay. Several wood preservatives
Co
may be used for that purpose, but some of them may reduce the
7.3 Pile Foundations adfreeze bond between pile surface and frozen soil.
The advantages of timber piles include their good insulation
Shallow foundations are frequently used in permafrost for light properties and relatively high bond strength. However, they
buildings, but all heavy loads or settlement-sensitive structures have a low structural capacity and cannot be driven mechani-
are usually carried on piles embedded in permafrost. Another cally into the frozen ground.
reason for preference for piles is that they are mostly prefabri-
cated and can be installed mechanically, and they do not need Steel Piles. Pipe piles and H-piles are the most common types
an open excavation that could lead to a high thermal distur- of steel piles used in permafrost. Pipe piles filled with concrete
bance of the ground. Piles with ventilated airspaces between the or sand may be used to provide high load capacity. Open-ended
ground surface and the heated structures have proved to be an steel-pipe and H-piles can be driven deep into relatively warm
effective foundation type for thaw-sensitive, ice-rich, fine- permafrost and carry high loads. Field experience (e.g., Linell
grained soils. and Johnston 1973) shows that there is essentially no steel cor-

l
ria
FIGURE 7-22 Proposed pile selection procedures.
Source: Reproduced from Weaver 1979.
ate
rosion in permafrost and only a small amount of corrosion in 3. Dry augering: similar to technique 2, with either undersized
the active layer. or oversized holes.
Closed-ended or capped pipe piles are generally placed in 4. Driving: conventional and temperature-modified pile driv-
preaugered holes, with the annulus between the pile and the ing techniques are used.
dM
hole filled with a sand– water slurry or concrete. Pipe piles are 5. Various combinations of the above.
also normally selected when designing against lateral loads.
Generally, working gravel pads and access roads are required
Steel pile sections can be modified to improve their capacity,
on the site when heavy equipment is used for pile installation.
either by corrugations (Thomas and Luscher 1980) or by weld-
Figure 7-22 shows suggested pile placement methods as a func-
ing special lugs on them (Andersland and Alwahhab 1982,
tion of ground temperature and soil type. When steam thawing
1983). Finally, heat tubes may readily be placed inside a pipe
(Fig. 7-23) or slurry backfill methods are used in relatively
pile if required to maintain the existing thermal regime.
hte
warm permafrost, it takes a long time for the soil to refreeze

Concrete Piles. Although they are rarely used in North Amer- under natural conditions, and artificial refrigeration may be
ican permafrost practice, precast, reinforced circular and required (Crory 1963).
square piles have for many years been used extensively in Sibe- Suitable backfill (material removed from the holes) for piles
ria, where they are usually installed in prethawed or predrilled installed in oversized holes include silt and sand. Cement grout
holes. Because of the relatively low tensile strength of concrete, can also be used. Backfilling is accomplished by making a slurry
rig
these piles tend to crack under tensile frost heave forces, expos- with water, placing the slurry in batches around the pile, and
ing the steel to corrosion. Pretensioned precast piles perform vibrating it to remove voids. The temperature of the slurry
better in such a situation, as well as during transporting and should be kept near freezing before backfilling to shorten
handling. Cast-in-place concrete piles have been used only freezeback times. Sufficient space must be provided between
occasionally in permafrost until recently because of a potential the pile and the hole to ensure proper placement of the slurry.
py
problem of thermal degradation of frozen ground and freezing Timber piles often rise or float when the holes are backfilled
of fresh concrete. However, the development of a high-alumina with silt–water slurries so that they must be weighted or
cement mix that allows the grout to cure rapidly at tempera- restrained. More recently, new, rapidly curing high-alumina
tures as low as –10 °C (Biggar and Sego 1990; Biggar, Sego, and cement grouts have been used with success as backfilling mate-
Co
Noël 1991; Benmokrane et al. 1991) may make cast-in-place rials (Biggar and Sego 1990; Biggar, Sego, and Noël 1991).
piles more acceptable in practice. An annular coating of ice may form on the wall or the pile
surface for slurries with a high water content (45% for silt).
Pile Placement This ice layer may control the available bond strength that sup-
ports the pile. Installation of slurried piles in marginal perma-
Depending on soil type and its temperature, pile type, and frost areas during the spring months takes advantage of the
available field equipment, one of the following pile placement natural cold in the ground and can often eliminate the need for
techniques may be selected (Crory 1963; Phukan 1985): artificial refrigeration. Linell and Johnston (1973) stated that
1. Steam thawing: prethawing a hole in permafrost followed by refrigeration is not required where the mean annual ground
driving the pile in place. temperature is –4 °C or colder.
2. Hole predrilling: after rotary drilling, piles are either driven Alternatively, a slurried pile can be converted to a thermal
in undersized holes or placed in oversized holes with a soil– pile by the addition of one or more heat tubes, which extract
slurry backfill. heat from the supporting subsoils during the winter period.

(a)
l
ria
FIGURE 7-24 Alaska pipeline supported on steel pipe piles
refrigerated by thermosiphons, Fairbanks, Alaska.
(b)
ate
dM
FIGURE 7-25 Reinforced H-pile section for driving in perma-
frost.
Source: Reproduced from Nottingham 1979.
hte
makes driving easier, provides better vertical alignment of the

FIGURE 7-23 (a) Prefabricated concrete piles installed by per- pile, and also tends to improve the total lateral bond because of
mafrost steam-thawing, Yakutsk, Siberia. (b) Building on tim- prestrain induced by the driving. Nottingham and Christo-
ber piles installed by permafrost steam thawing, Inuvik, pherson (1983) and Manikian (1983) have reported the suc-
Northwest Territory, Canada.
rig
cessful use of this technique in Alaska, especially when the pilot

hole was thermally modified by pouring hot water into it and
leaving the water in the hole for up to 1 hour (Fig. 7-28).
Steel pipe piles refrigerated by thermosiphons (heat tubes; see
Section C.5) are illustrated in Fig. 7-24.
py
Pile Freezeback
Steel H-section and hollow-pipe piles have been driven into
frozen ground successfully (DiPasquale, Gerlek, and Phukan Freezeback of backfill slurry around piles installed in oversized
1983; Davison, Rooney, and Bruggers 1978). These H-section holes will occur by natural dissipation of the heat to the sur-
piles were reinforced by adding angle sections on either side of rounding frozen ground, or it may have to be assisted by artifi-
Co
the web, as is shown in Fig. 7-25 (Nottingham 1979). They cial refrigeration methods. These methods may be required
were driven directly into frozen ground using a wide range of when permafrost temperatures are warm and the time to
impact-driving equipment with high energy (Davison, Rooney, required pile loading is short. Factors that govern freezeback
and Bruggers 1978). time include the ground-temperature regime, volume of slurry
Vibratory hammers have also been used for driving H-sec- per unit length of pile, latent heat of fusion of the slurry, and
tion or circular hollow piles (Figs. 7-26 and 7-27). Bendz spacing of the piles. Under given ground thermal conditions,
(1977) reported the use of high-frequency (sonic) driving freezeback time will be shortest when the slurry volume and
equipment. Vibratory hammers and high-frequency equip- water content are at a minimum and the spacing between the
ment may also be used for pile extraction from permafrost. piles is at a maximum. For practical reasons, the annular space
Generally, the direct driving technique is most efficient in around the pile (Fig. 7-29) should be at least 50 mm but no
frozen fine-grained soils. The technique can be facilitated and more than 100 mm wide (Johnston 1981).
improved by drilling a small pilot hole prior to pile driving The general solution for natural freezeback problems,
(Nottingham 1979). Driving the pile into an undersized hole adapted from Carslaw and Jaeger (1959) and Lee (1962) and

l
ria
FIGURE 7-28 Drilled pilot hole with hot water for thawing
permafrost prior to driving, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
ate
Source: Courtesy of Alan Christopherson, Peratrovich, Nottingham & Drage,
Inc., Anchorage.
dM
FIGURE 7-29 Notation for calculation of volumetric heat of
hte
slurry backfill.
Source: Reproduced with permission from Crory 1963. Copyright 1963
FIGURE 7-26 Production pile driving equipment, Prudhoe National Academies Press.
Bay, Alaska.
Inc., Anchorage.
rig
shown in Fig. 7-30, permits computation of the time required

for freezeback at different temperatures. In the figure, Q is the
volumetric latent heat of slurry per meter of pile length (J/m)
calculated from Fig. 7-29:
py
Q = pL (r22 - r12 )wrd = L ( pr22 - A )wrd (7.3-1)
where w is the slurry water content (weight fraction), rd the

slurry dry density (kg/m3), L the latent heat of water (J/kg), rl
the radius of the pile (m), r2 the radius of the hole (m), and A
Co
the cross-sectional area of the H-pile (m2). Symbols in Fig. 7-30

include t, freezeback time (s); cv , volumetric heat capacity of
permafrost (J/m3K); a, thermal diffusivity of permafrost (m2/
s); and q, initial temperature of permafrost, expressed as a
number of °C below freezing.
The theoretical curve in Fig. 7-30 has been approximated by
the empirical formula
4
FIGURE 7-27 Driving test pile at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, with an at Ê Q ˆ 3
(7.3-2)
ª 0.051Á 2 ˜
electric vibratory hammer and thermally modified pilot hole. 2
r2 Ë cv r2 q ¯
Inc., Anchorage. from which

where S is the grid pile spacing (m), DT the temperature rise of

the frozen ground (°C), and r2, cv , and Q are as defined in Fig.
7-30. From Eq. (7.3-4), the pile spacing which assures that the
ground temperature rise will not exceed DT is then
1
Ê Q ˆ 2
(7.3-5)
s = Á pr22 +
Ë cv DT ˜¯
■ EXAMPLE 7.3-1: Calculate the freezeback time for a slur-

ried 210-mm-diameter timber pile, placed in a 300mm-diame-
ter predrilled hole, and determine the minimum spacing of a
l
group of such piles that will permit natural freezeback to occur
ria
without allowing the permafrost temperature to exceed –0.5
°C. Data include permafrost (silt) with rd = 1,361 kg/m3, k =
2.08 W/mK, w = 35%, and an average initial permafrost tem-
perature of –1.67 °C; and slurry backfill with rd = 1,200 kg/m3,
ate
w = 40%, and an initial temperature of 4.6 °C.
Solution: For the slurry, calculate the heat capacity (Eq.
2.5-18)]:
Ê 1, 200 ˆ
c v ,s 1 = Á (0.17 + 0.40) 4.187 = 2.86 MJ/m3 ◊ K
Ë 1, 000 ˜¯
dM
Compute the latent heat for the slurry [Eq. (2.5-23)]:
FIGURE 7-30 Theoretical solution for slurry freezeback and its Ls1 = 0.334 × 1,200 × 0.40 = 160.2 MJ/m3
approximation by Eq. (7.3-2).
Notes: t = freezeback time, s; cv = volumetric heat capacity of permafrost, J/m3 For the permafrost (frozen silt), compute the heat capacity:
K; a = thermal diffusivity of permafrost, m2/s; Q = volumetric latent heat of
slurry per unit of pile length, J/m; q = initial temperature of permafrost, °C Ê 1, 361 ˆ
cv , pf = Á [0.17 + (0.5 ¥ 0.35)]4.187 = 1.97 MJ/m3 ◊ K
hte
below freezing; and r2 = radius of pile hole, m. Ë 1, 000 ˜¯

Source: Reproduced from Linell and Lobacz 1980; see also Johnston 1981.
Compute the thermal diffusivity [Eq. (2.5-22)]:
4 2.08
r2 Ê Q ˆ 3 a= = 1.0558 ¥ 10-6 m2 /s
t ª 0.051 2 Á 2 ˜ (7.3-3) 1.97 ¥ 106
rig
a Ë cv r2 q ¯
The volume occupied by the slurry per meter of pile embed-
The empirical formula [Eq. (7.3-2)] shown in Fig. 7-30 approxi- ment:
mates the theoretical curve in the at/r22 range between 1 and 200.
p
The solution presented for the pile-freezeback problem V= (0.32 - 0.212 )1.0 = 0.036 m3
py
assumes that heat is conducted only radially away from the pile 4
and slurry. This solution gives acceptable values for minimum Volumetric latent heat per meter of pile, plus the heat extrac-
pile spacing. The actual heat flow is always toward the colder tion necessary to lower the slurry temperature from 4.5 °C to
areas, as is shown in Fig. 7-31. During late winter, freezeback –0.5 °C (DT = 5 °C).
Co
occurs faster near the colder surface as heat dissipates outward

and upward from the pile. During late summer, freezeback Q = V (Ls1 + DTc v,s1 ) = 0.036[160.2 + (5 ¥ 2.86)] = 6.282 MJ/m
depends on the cold reserve of the permafrost below the thawed
active layer. Crory (1963) recommended that thermcouple The ratio in Fig. 7-30 is then
assemblies be installed to verify freezeback times before loading
Q 6.282
the piles. Another important consideration is pile spacing, = = 84.9
which affects freezeback time of the backfill material. Accord- cv ,pf r2 q 1.97 ¥ 0.152 ¥ 1.67
2
ing to Crory (1963) and Phukan (1985), the allowable pile and from Fig. 7-30 read at/r22 = 22, giving
spacing can be calculated by putting the heat dissipated by the
backfill equal to the heat gained by the frozen ground between 22r22 22 ¥ 0.152
piles: t= = = 467, 839 s = 130 h= 5.4 days
a 1.0558 ¥ 10-6
pr22cv DT + Q = cv DTS2 (7.3-4) For comparison, the approximate formula, Eq. (7.3-3), yields

tion available if permafrost temperatures

rise after construction. The following
example (adapted from U.S. Army / Air
Force 1967) shows calculations required to
determine the amount of heat to be
extracted from the ground.
The average volume of slurry backfill for
a group of piles is 0.88 m3 per pile. The
slurry is placed at an average temperature
of 9 °C and must be frozen to –5 °C. A
silt-water slurry of 1,280 kg/m3 dry density
and 40% water content is used as backfill
l
ria
material, and an available refrigeration unit
is capable of removing 237.4 MJ/h. Calcu-
late the length of time required to freeze
back a group of 20 piles.
Solution: Calculate the volumetric latent
ate
heat of the slurry:
Ls = 0.334(1280)0.40 = 171 MJ/m3

The volumetric heat capacity of the frozen
slurry:
dM
cf = 4.187(1.28)[0.17 + 0.5(0.4)]
= 1.983 MJ/m3 · K
The volumetric heat capacity of the thawed
slurry:
cu = 4.187(1.28)[0.17 + 1.0(0.4)]
hte
= 3.055 MJ/m3 · K
Heat required to depress the slurry temper-
ature to the freezing point:
FIGURE 7-31 Natural freezeback of piles in permafrost during winter and summer 3.055(0.88)9.0 = 24.2 MJ/pile
(original units, feet and degrees Fahrenheit, retained)
rig
Heat required to freeze the slurry:

Source: Reproduced with permission from Crory 1963. Copyright 1963 National Academies Press.
0.88(171) = 150.5 MJ/pile
4 Heat required to depress the slurry temper-

Ê 0.152 ˆÊ 6.282 ˆ 3
ature from the freezing point to –5 °C:
t ª 0.051Á
Ë 1.0558 ¥ 10-6 ˜¯ ÁË 1.97 ¥ 0.152 ¥ 1.67 ˜¯
py
1.983(0.88)5.0 = 8.725 MJ
= 404, 336 s = 112.6 h = 4.7 days
Total heat to be removed from the slurry:
Pile spacing required to maintain the permafrost temperature
20 piles(24.2 + 150.5 + 8.725) = 3,668.5 MJ
Co
below –0.5 °C is, according to Eq. (7.3-5), equal to

1
Time required for artificial freezeback, excluding allowances for
È Ê 6.282 ˆ˘ 2 system losses:
S = Í( p ¥ 0.152 ) + Á ¥ 1.17˜ ˙ = 1.67 m
Î Ë 1 .97 ¯˚
3, 668.5 MJ
= 15.45 h
because DT = 1.67 – 0.5 = 1.17 °C is the maximum allowed 237.5 MJ/h
temperature increase. Thus a group of such piles in a square
pattern of 1.70 by 1.70 m would take about a week to refreeze
naturally. Axially Loaded Piles
Pile design in permafrost is normally based on the long-term
■ EXAMPLE 7.3-2: If permafrost temperatures are marginal, adfreeze bond between the pile surface and adjacent frozen
it may be necessary to install artificial refrigeration around the slurry and/or soil. There are two alternative design approaches:
pile to accelerate slurry freezeback time and to have refrigera- (1) The applied shear stress along the pile surface must be

below some acceptable strength for the site soil conditions, or

(2) the continuous-settlement rate must be less than acceptable
rates based on the service life and total allowable settlement of
the pile. End bearing is considered only when the pile tip is
driven to rock or dense sands or gravels. Some movement is
generally required to mobilize end bearing in other soils.
Dynamic pile-driving formulas are not suitable for piling in
permafrost because time- and temperature-dependent soil and
ice properties rather than the initial driving resistance of the
pile govern the long-term pile capacity.
The capacity of single piles in permafrost, subjected to static
l
vertical loads, depends on (1) the warmest or average perma-
ria
frost temperature profile at the site; (2) adfreeze strength of the
pile in permafrost as a function of temperature; (3) length of
embedment to carry structural loads and to resist downdrag
and frost-heaving forces; (4) type, size, and construction proce-
dure for the piling; and (5) complete freezeback before loads
ate
are applied. Exploratory and verification pile tests along with a
check on time settlements are used to establish the pile capac-
ity. The nomenclature used to describe the forces and dimen-
sions needed for the design of single piles in permafrost is
shown in Fig. 7-32. Both summer and winter loading condi-
tions are considered. The required length of embedment is gov-
dM
erned by summer design conditions. The available adfreeze
bond in the permafrost must carry both the structural load and
any load caused by the consolidating thawed surface soils. Soils
in the active layer freeze and bond to the pile during the colder
winter months. Any heaving forces that develop for silt and clay
soils in the active layer must be resisted by the adfreeze bond in
hte
permafrost and skin friction of the consolidating soils below

the active layer. End bearing is normally excluded from design
considerations for tip diameters less than 150 mm (U.S. Army /
Air Force 1967), because of the greater movement required to
mobilize point resistance in comparison with much smaller
movements for adfreeze failure.
rig
According to Fig. 7-32, design requirements for piles

embedded in permafrost for summer conditions include
neglecting end bearing, Pb ,
P + Pn < Pp (7.3-6a) FIGURE 7-32 Seasonal forces acting on axially loaded piles in
py
permafrost.
P + pd S t ni Lci < p d S t pi Lpi (7.3-6b) Source: Adapted from Linell and Lobacz 1980.
and for winter conditions, on the available shaft resistance, Pp , which is a function of soil
type and temperature, and of the pile shape and its method of
Co
Pa < P + Pn + Pp (7.3-7a)
installation.
p d S t ai Lai < P + p d S t ni L ti + p d S t pi L pi (7.3-7b) In general, even in a uniform frozen soil, because of maxi-
mum temperature variation along the pile shaft, the value of Pa
where P is the structural load applied to the pile plus weight of
is usually expressed by the sum
pile, Pa the active shaft adfreeze force due to frost heave, Pp the
passive shaft adfreeze force (adfreeze bond), Pn the downdrag Lp
force due to consolidation of thawed strata, Lc the maximum Pa = 2 p a Â tai D L i (7.3-8)
thickness of active layer, La the thickness of the freezing portion 0
of the active layer, and Lt the thickness of the thawed portion of where 2pa is the perimeter of the pile shaft for a circular pile
the active layer. and tai is the relevant shear resistance (or adfreeze bond) for a
The required embedment length of a pile, Lp , is normally layer i with thickness DLi .
determined for summer conditions. If end bearing is neglected To determine the minimum available shaft resistance, it is
for additional safety reasons, the value of Lp will depend only necessary to estimate the depth of maximum thaw and the

envelope of maximum ground temperatures along the embed- The entire design procedure is summarized in Fig. 7-36.
ded pile length, Lp , as was described in Chapter 1. Adfreeze Weaver and Morgenstern’s (1981) method distinguishes
bond strength ta can be selected from various sources, which between ice-rich and ice-poor frozen soils, and it suggests that
are based mainly on field observations on piles in permafrost. portions of the frozen ground with temperatures above –1 °C
Figures 7-33, 7-34, and 7-35 show some information about the can be neglected. The same authors have also compiled data on
short- and long-term (sustainable) adfreeze strength of typical adfreeze strengths from various sources, as is shown in Figs.
frozen soils as a function of temperature. It is clear that once 7-37 and 7-38. Some additional comments on end-bearing
the pile embedment length, Lp , has been selected, the settle- capacity and adfreeze bond development for piles in perma-
ment or settlement rate of the pile under service loads must be frost are presented below.
estimated and compared with tolerable limits.
■ EXAMPLE 7.3-3: A 178-kN capacity pile is required in a
l
deep, ice-rich deposit that is frozen well below the depth
ria
ate
dM
hte
FIGURE 7-33 Tangential adfreeze bond strengths versus tem- FIGURE 7-34 Tentative ultimate adfreeze bond strength in
perature for silt-water-slurried 0.22 m-O.D. steel pipe piles in creep for saturated soils.
rig
permafrost, averaged over 5.50 to 6.40 m embedded lengths Source: Adapted from Sanger 1969.
in permafrost.
Notes: Correction factors for type of pile and slurry backfill (using steel in
slurry of low-organic silt as 1.0):
Slurry soil
py
Type of pile Silt Sand

Steel 1.0 1.5
Concrete 1.5 1.5
Wood, untreated or lightly creosoted 1.5 1.5
Co
Wood, medium creosoted (no surface film) 1.0 1.5

Wood, coal-tar-treated (heavily coated) 0.8 0.8
1. Applies only for soil temperatures down to about –4 °C.

2. Where factor is the same for silt and sand, the surface coating on the pile
controls, regardless of type of slurry. In the remaining factors the pile is capable
of generating sufficient bond, so that the slurry material controls.
3. Gradations typical of soils used for slurry backfill are as follows: Silt–SFS,
Fairbanks silt; Sand–SM, McNamara concrete sand.
4. Pile load tests performed using 44.5 kN/day load increment were adjusted to
44.5 kN/3 days to obtain curves shown. FIGURE 7-35 Proposed maximum short-term design adfreeze
5. Clays and highly organic soils should be expected to have lower adfreeze strengths for steel piles.
bond strengths. Source: Reproduced with permission from Nottingham and Christopherson
Source: Reproduced from Linell and Lobacz 1980. 1983. Copyright 1983 National Academies Press.

l
ria
ate
dM
FIGURE 7-36 Proposed pile design procedure.
hte
Source: Reproduced with permission from Weaver and Morgenstern 1981. Copyright 1981 Canadian Geotechnical Journal.
rig
py
Co
FIGURE 7-37 Published adfreeze strengths. FIGURE 7-38 Long-term cohesion of frozen soils.
Source: Reproduced with permission from Weaver and Morgenstern 1981. Source: Reproduced with permission from Weaver and Morgenstern 1981.
Copyright 1981 Canadian Geotechnical Journal Copyright 1981 Canadian Geotechnical Journal

Next Page
explored by drilling. Average moisture content is 35%, and

the mean annual thawing index is 1,222 °C · days. An air-
space is to be provided below the floor of the structure,
and spruce will be used for the piling. Determine the
required pile diameter and embedment.
Solution: Using the pile capacity of 178 kN and the
strength of spruce equal to 5.17 MPa, compute the
required pile diameter:
1 1
Ê 4 ¥ load ˆ 2
Ê 4 ¥ 178 ˆ 2
D =Á =Á = 0.209 m = 209 mm
Ë p ¥ strength ˜¯ Ë p ¥ 5,171 ˜¯
l
ria
Specify a minimum 210-mm-diameter pile to carry the
structural load. The piles will be slurried into
300-mm-diameter predrilled holes and allowed to freeze
back. Measured ground temperatures show the permafrost
ate
table at 1.52 m (Fig. 7-39). Specific surface area per meter
of pile length equals (210p)/1,000 = 0.66 m2/m. Computa-
tions showing the pile capacity are given in Table 7-6.
When a factor of safety of 2 is used on the sustained load,
the design load becomes 356 kN. Using Fig. 7-39, note that
the data show a required embedment length of 7.0 m, with
dM
the pile to be placed in a 9-m hole.
End-Bearing Capacity. As was shown experimentally by

Ladanyi and Paquin (1987) for frozen sand, and by Sego
(1980) for ice, after a mobilization period requiring a total
settlement of about 30% of the base diameter, the point
hte
resistance of a pile in frozen soil or ice tends to become

proportional to the penetration rate, as long as the temper- FIGURE 7-39 Pile capacity analysis, Example 7.3-3.
ature remains constant. On the basis of this finding, Nixon Source: Reproduced with permission from Phukan and Andersland 1978. Copyright
(1978a) applied a theory of creep settlement of circular 1978 McGraw-Hill.
footings in frozen soils (Ladanyi and Johnston 1974) to
determine the dependence of the pile point resistance q on
rig
the penetration rate ṡ = ds/dt, where s denotes the amount of for piles (about 1 mm/yr), the point resistance according to Eq.
pile point penetration. In our notation, this relationship has (7.3-9) is very low and is most often neglected.
the form
Adfreeze Strength from Laboratory Data. As was noted
1 above, the design criteria for piles installed in permanently fro-
2n Ê s ˆ n
py
q = sc q Á (7.3-9) zen ground are in many aspects similar to those used in unfro-
3 Ë a ec ˜¯ zen soils. There are also some important differences. For exam-
where a is the pile base radius and the remaining parameters ple, the unit shaft resistance or bond can be represented by the
are as in Eq (5.3-13). Normally, for low settlement rates allowed Coulomb equation in both soil types
Co
ta = ca + pn tan fa (7.3-10)
where ca and fa are bond shear parameters at the soil-pile inter-

TABLE 7-6 Pile Capacity for Example 7.3-3
face, and pn is the normal stress acting on that interface. In both
Adfreeze unfrozen and frozen soils the two parameters depend on the soil
Embedment strength DA DL DP Cumulative type, the character of the interface, and the method of pile
(m) (kN/m2) (m2/m) (m) (kN) capacity (kN) installation. The last item also affects the lateral ground stress pn .
0–1.2 28.7 0.66 1.2 22.73 22.73 A synthesis of published data on long-term adfreeze
1.2–2.0 57.5 0.66 0.8 30.36 53.09 strength, made by Weaver and Morgenstern (1981), shows that
2.0–3.5 76.6 0.66 1.5 75.83 128.92 for saturated frozen soils, the adfreeze strength is inversely
3.5–6.0 95.8 0.66 2.5 158.07 286.99 related to the ice content and directly related to the roughness
of the pile. In the limit, the adfreeze strength of very rough piles
6.0–9.2 114.9 0.66 3.2 242.67 529.66
approaches the shear strength of frozen soil. On the basis of the

Foundations in Frozen Soils: 7.1 General Considerations

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7

Unheated Structures. The depth of frost penetration around

restrain heave fully, one should attempt to eliminate it by

ply to the freezing front should be reduced by drainage.

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TABLE 7-1 Minimum Foundation Depth with Ground

40,000 (1,667) 0.50 0.60

around heated buildings in two typical cases: (a) ground-sup-

Heated Structures. Thermal losses through the ground are

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

Part of Design freezing index [h · °C (°C · days)]

The design, construction, and maintenance of foundations in Site data

behavior on thawing. A soil is considered to be thaw-unstable if Thermal conditions

details on possible methods are given in the following sections.

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

7.2 Shallow Foundations

and 7-10). The crawl space below the floor

A lifted floor system with pile or footing

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

pad thickness is determined on the basis of thaw

protection of permafrost under heated structures

Nixon (1983) has shown that insulation com-

floor insulation thickness may then become

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

5. Modify the footing size or depth when settlements or settle-

pb capacity theory (based on rigid-plastic soil behavior) are not

È Êa ˆ B˘ (1988) will be mentioned here. The ultimate bearing pressure

qult = cN c dc ic + qN q dqiq + 0.5gBN g dg ig (7.2-2)

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

inclination of the resultant force with respect to the vertical; n -1 1

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Retrieved from: www.knovel.com

Source: Reproduced with permission from Ladanyi 1975. Copyright 1975

adopted. These values are also applicable to short-term failure

Ë N c ,strip ¯L frozen soils creep settlement will be negligible. In plastic frozen

qult ■ EXAMPLE 7.2-2 : Estimate the bearing capacity 20 years

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to predict foundation settlements. It would be better to be able

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foundation loads (which usually exceed the true long-term

Frozen Soil Properties Needed for Settlement Evaluation.

footing founded on an ice-saturated frozen soil, one will need

tration tests (see Section 10.3).

of a frozen sand cannot be lower than its unfrozen effective

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(Ladanyi and Johnston 1974; Ladanyi 1975) and valid

where a = B/2 is the half width or footing radius,

and for a strip footing

For a rectangular footing with length L and width B, the

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TABLE 7-4 Soil Profile for Example 7.2-3

kf 2.08 ¥ 86, 400

For the frozen sand, c vf = 1.9 MJ/m3K and kf = 3.46 W/mK.

3.46 ¥ 86, 400

A correction for the layered soil system in ground temperature

Thus 1 m of sand is equivalent to 0.77 m of silt with reference

to temperature under transient conditions. Maximum temper-

form vertical load qo = 950 kPa can be calculated by Eq.

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TABLE 7-5 Computation of Creep Settlements

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