Reversible and irreversible strain behavior of frozen aeolian soil under dynamic loading

Dynamic triaxial experiments were conducted to investigate the reversible and irreversible strain behavior of frozen aeolian soil. The frozen soil samples were subjected to the testing conditions of various temperatures, dynamic stress amplitudes, confining pressures and loading frequencies. The testing results indicate that both temperature and dynamic stress amplitude have significant influences on the resilient strain of frozen aeolian soil, and higher temperature and dynamic stress amplitude lead to larger cumulative plastic strain of frozen aeolian soil. Within the range of 0.02–0.1 MPa for the confining pressure, the resilient modulus increases with the increase of the confining pressure, while the cumulative plastic strain behaves adversely. The resilient modulus increases slightly with the increasing of the loading frequency, while the cumulative plastic strain somewhat decreases when the loading frequency reduces. Moreover, the functions of resilient modulus and cumulative plastic strain of frozen aeolian soil subgrade under dynamic loading were obtained. The results provide fundamental experimental data for predicting the permanent deformation of frozen aeolian soil subgrade and may shed light on further studies on the stability of highway subgrade in the cold regions.