EFFECTS OF STRAIN RATE AND WATER CONTENT ON FAILURE STRAIN ENERGY DENSITY OF FROZEN SOIL

At-2.0℃and-5.0℃, a series of uniaxial compressive tests were conducted on frozen silty sand soil with different water contents on condition of various strain rates to analyze the influences of strain rate and water content on failure strain energy density of frozen soil. The testing results show that with strain rate increasing failure strain energy density increases nonlinearly at a slower rate and finally the affection becomes very little when strain rate is beyond 210-3s-1.However, the increase of water content makes failure strain energy density appear a decrease tendency in the late increase stage of strain rate. With moisture content increasing, firstly failure strain energy density increases sharply to a maximum and then decreases sharply to a minimum. Finally, the further increase of water content makes the failure strain energy density be basically equal to 0.05MPa. The mechanism of strength change is not totally coincident with the mechanism of failure strain energy density change.