Investigation of the freeze thaw performance of clayey soils reinforced with geotextiles

In cold regions, freeze-thaw cycles are an important phenomenon for engineering structures and roads. Freezing and thawing affects the engineering properties of soils by transposition of water and ice below freezing temperatures. In previous studies, fiber addition and other chemical additives are investigated by the researchers. In this study, unconfined compressive strength tests have been conducted to investigate the freeze-thaw effect on the one, two and three layered geotextile reinforced cohesive soil specimens. Geotextile layers are equally spaced in the test specimens while compacting and afterwards subjected to zero, three, six and nine freeze-thaw cycles in a computer-controlled cabin. As a result of the laboratory work, it was found that reinforced samples had higher freeze-thaw durability as compared to unreinforced kaolinite specimens. The strength loss after nine freeze-thaw cycles decreased from 25 to 14 per cent by placing nonwoven geotextile layers in the kaolinite specimens.