Evaluation of variability characteristics of mechanical parameters of artificially frozen clay in deep alluvium

Abstract The uncertain mechanical parameters of artificial frozen soil in deep alluvium are the key factors for computing the stochastic stress fields and stochastic deformation fields of artificial freezing engineering. In this study, a series of mechanical parameters tests for the artificially frozen clay are carried out, and the statistical data of elastic modulus, strength and Poisson ratio of frozen clay under three different low temperature conditions (−20 °C, −15 °C and −10 °C) are obtained. The experimental semi-variogram values of the mechanical parameters for artificially frozen clay under different temperature conditions are calculated and analyzed. The results show that the test data meets the requirements of the coefficient of variation analysis and the elastic modulus, strength and poisson ratio basically meet the normal distribution. The variability of the mechanical parameters for artificially frozen clay is basically in the degree of moderate to weak variability. The optimal theoretical variation function model of basic mechanical parameters of frozen clay is Gaussian model. The correlation of soil parameters calculated by Gauss model at smaller distances is greater than that of Exponential model and Spherical model. The mechanical parameters of artificially frozen clay are strongly dependent in spatial range. This study can improve our understanding of the variation characteristics of uncertain mechanical parameters for artificial frozen soil in deep alluvium and provide a theoretical basis and reference for the stochastic mechanical analysis of artificial freezing engineering.