Temperature and strain rate dependence of frozen fine-grained rock infilling: Implications for permafrost slope stability
Bibliographic record
Abstract
There has been a notable increase in rock slope instability and failure in permafrost regions, a trend that has coincided with, and is expected to intensify under, ongoing climate change. One of the key mechanisms driving this instability is the mechanical weakening of warming permafrost, including the degradation of frozen joint infilling materials. Despite its importance, the failure behavior of frozen joint infillings has been studied in only a limited number of experimental investigations, particularly with respect to temperature and strain rate dependence in fine-grained frozen soils. This study addresses that gap by examining the mechanical behavior of a fine-grained silica soil (Sil-Co-Sil 106) subjected to varying temperatures and strain rates to better understand the implications of permafrost degradation on slope stability. A series of uniaxial compression tests were performed at three temperatures (−20 °C, −10 °C, and − 1 °C) and three strain rates (2 %/min, 20 %/min, and 280 %/min). Key results show that lower temperatures and higher strain rates significantly increase the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and lead to more abrupt post-peak stress loss. The elastic modulus also increases with decreasing temperature and higher strain rates. In contrast, the Poisson's ratio rises with slower strain rates and warmer temperatures, indicating increased susceptibility to volumetric strain. Additionally, specimens tend to yield at lower stress levels under high strain rates and elevated temperatures, pointing to reduced resistance to deformation. Crack propagation analysis revealed that higher strain rates produce larger crack angles, suggesting enhanced intergranular friction, while lower temperatures are associated with smaller crack angles, indicative of more brittle behavior. Together, these findings underscore the importance of accounting for both rheological (rate-dependent) and thermal effects in the geotechnical design of infrastructure in cold regions. As permafrost degradation accelerates, understanding the mechanical response of frozen joint infilling becomes crucial for developing resilient engineering solutions and adapting infrastructure in vulnerable, high-risk permafrost environments. • Studied frozen joint infilling under varying temperatures and strain rates. • Identified temperature and strain-rate effects on uniaxial compressive strength (UCS). • Demonstrated higher strain rates increase inter-granular friction and crack angles. • Showed elastic modulus rises with decreasing temperature and increasing strain rates. • Provided insights into permafrost slope stability under climatic warming.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".