SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS ON FROZEN SOIL:

CREEP SETTLEMENT
By Branko Ladanyi 1

ABSTRACT: Current methods for estimating the long-term settlement of shallow

foundations on frozen soils are reviewed. It is found that, when the distortional
creep is the main source of settlement, there are some potentially good meth-
ods for its prediction. Much less is known, however, on how to predict the
long-term settlement of shallow footings on relatively warm frozen soils, when
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both creep and consolidation act simultaneously. Other subjects considered in

the paper are the selection of operational strength of frozen soils for the design,
the ways of taking into account the effect of friction on their creep and strength,
as well as the effects on the settlement of foundations of the depth of burial
and the loading history. Finally, some areas of needed research are defined,
with a special emphasis on the need for more long-term performance obser-
vations on full-scale footings in permafrost.

INTRODUCTION

Because the mechanical behavior of frozen soils is temperature sen-

sitive, the complete foundation design for cold regions is a complex pro-
cedure involving a long-term prediction of the maximum temperature
profile in the ground below the foundation, and the resulting temper-
ature and time-dependent deformation and strength properties of the
foundation soils. General rules and procedures for foundation design in
cold regions can be found in a number of papers, books, and manuals
(6,16,20,21) and will not be reviewed here.
In this paper, it will be assumed that a reliable, permanently frozen
ground has been found at a shallow depth, so that shallow footings have
been selected as a possible solution. The design of such footings is, how-
ever, not an easy task, because although several theories and design
procedures have been advanced for that purpose, very few complete
case histories of such full-scale foundations have been published up to
now (23). For that reason, the design of shallow foundations in perma-
frost is still usually based on extreme conditions and contains high mar-
gins of safety with respect to failure and excessive deformations (17).
This paper presents a review of some proposed methods for calculat-
ing the creep settlement of shallow foundations on frozen soils, and of
a rather limited experimental evidence published on that subject. It fi-
nally emphasizes the areas in which further research will be necessary
in order to get a better understanding of the observed behavior and to
be able to make a more economical design of such foundations.

SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS: USE

Shallow foundations are normally defined as footings h a v i n g a w i d t h ,

'Prof, of Civ. Engrg. a n d Dir., N o r t h e r n Engrg. Centre, Ecole Polytechnique,
P.O. Box 6079, Station A, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3A7, Canada.
Note.—Discussion o p e n until April 1, 1984. To extend the closing d a t e o n e
m o n t h , a written request m u s t be filed with the ASCE Manager of Technical a n d
Professional Publications. The manuscript for this p a p e r was submitted for re-
view a n d possible publication on January 22, 1982. This p a p e r is part of the Jour-
nal of Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 109, No. 11, November, 1983. ©ASCE, ISSN
0733-9410/83/0011-1434/$01.00. Paper N o . 18344.

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J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 B, equal to or greater than their depth, Df, and are placed at a depth
governed by the thickness of the active layer. In suitable soil conditions,
they may be placed directly in contact with the frozen ground, but more
often the requirement to maintain thermal equilibrium in the frozen
ground dictates that shallow foundations be placed on a gravel berm or
a layer of suitable sandy soil with or without insulation. It is also a gen-
eral practice to excavate and construct shallow foundations in the fall,
and to allow the cold winter temperatures to freeze back the disturbed
subsoil area. Fig. 1 shows a typical shallow footing with the envelopes
of the warmest and the coldest ground temperatures which can be de-
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termined as described in Ref. 20.

Spread footings have been used in permafrost much less often than
piles. The reason for the preference for piles in most cases was that they
are prefabricated and can be mechanically installed, i.e., they do not
need an open excavation. Nevertheless, the use of shallow foundations
may be more economical in many cases and could often be an acceptable
alternative to piles.

SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS: DESIGN

Because the mechanical properties of frozen ground are temperature

dependent, the ground temperature profile is one of the primary factors
to be considered in the design of shallow foundations. Mechanical prop-
erties of frozen soils needed in the design are determined from labora-
tory tests on undisturbed samples or from in situ tests.
In frozen soils, the effects of temperature and deviatoric creep are pre-
dominant. In particular, it appears that in frozen soils the Prandtl-Ter-
zaghi bearing capacity model loses its experimental justification, while
the nonlinear time-dependent response of frozen soil puts some doubt
into the use of any linear-elastic type of solution such as the Boussinesq
theory.
It is usual practice to use in the design the envelope of maximum tem-
peratures such as shown in Fig. 1 (16,20). Such a method is highly con-

, uColumn
o Load
1Q Ground Surface X.
/rww/w/ia//Jt

Top of
Permafrost Temperature, °C
Permafrost •j?6 -5 -4 -3 - 2 - 1 0 1

FIG. 1.—Typical Shallow Footing on Permafrost, with Maximum and Minimum

Ground Temperature Envelopes

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J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 servative and necessarily leads to an overprediction of settlement rates
and total cumulative settlements of foundations in permafrost. In reality,
because of a continuous temperature variation of permafrost, as well as
the freezing and thawing phenomena in the active layer, the rate of set-
tlement of a footing on permafrost will vary between wide limits during
the year. Observational data in this area are still completely lacking.

SOURCES OF SETTLEMENT
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When a foundation load is applied to a frozen soil, several short-term

phenomena occur and some long-term deformations start developing.
Following Vyalov (27), essentially five types of deformations may be ex-
pected to occur:

1. Instantaneous-elastic (reversible) due to the elastic deformation of the

soil skeleton, ice, unfrozen water, and gases.
2. Instantaneous-plastic (irreversible) due either to the structural col-
lapse of an unsaturated frozen soil under load with the expulsion of air,
or to the plastic bearing capacity failure of the foundation soil.
3. Viscoelastic (reversible) as a consequence of the reversible phase
transitions in ice.
4. Consolidation (irreversible) due to the delayed processes of migra-
tion, under pressure gradients, of air and unfrozen water. The latter
includes both the water existing before the load application and that
formed due to the phase change at ice particle contacts after the load is
applied.
5. Creep or visco-plastic flow (irreversible) arises from irreversible dis-
placements of solid particles governed by the flow of the pore ice. De-
pending on the load level and the boundary conditions, the creep set-
tlement of a foundation may be attenuating, stationary, or accelerating,
and may lead to a delayed bearing failure.

All these deformations together contribute to the settlement at any load,

their relative influence depending on the state of the soil, its tempera-
ture, and the load level.
Of the five types of deformations leading to the foundation settlement,
the two reversible ones, 1 and 2, are, under ordinary service loads, very
small compared to the irreversible ones under 2, 4, and 5. Among the
last three, the instantaneous-plastic deformation or bearing failure, 2,
can be determined by the conventional unfrozen soil mechanics meth-
ods, and by taking into account, of course, that the short-term cohesion
of the frozen soil is temperature dependent. Special considerations are,
however, necessary if one wants to predict the time-dependent settle-
ment of a foundation from basic consolidation and creep properties of
the frozen bearing strata.

CREEP AND CONSOLIDATION

In a frozen soil, the distortional creep is considered to be the main

source of the delayed response to a stress increase, while the consoli-
dation is usually thought to be of a secondary importance. However,
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J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 investigations by Vyalov (24) and Brodskaia (2) show that for relatively
warm frozen soils, containing large amounts of unfrozen water, con-
solidation may be quite substantial and should be taken into account in
all allowable bearing pressure determinations. According to the USSR
Standards (3), such warm or "plastic frozen" soils are, e.g., silty sands
at T > -0.3° C, sandy loams at T > -0.6° C, clay loams at T > -1.0° C,
and clays at T > -1.5° C. At temperatures lower than these, the same
soils are called "hard frozen" and consolidate very slowly.
Since at this time very little is still known about the laws governing
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the consolidation of a frozen soil under load and its temperature de-
pendence, one is still forced to use a quasi-single-phase approach for
the prediction of foundation settlements, although it would be clearly
better to be able to separate the settlements due to consolidation from
those due to creep (8).
For any such quasi-single-phase approach for calculating foundation
settlements to be valid, it is necessary that the selected constitutive equa-
tion properly represents the total delayed response of the frozen soil
under the applied load. This requirement, in particular for plastic frozen
soils that contain large amounts of unfrozen water, can clearly be met
only if the applied stress paths in the tests coincide with those expected
in the field, and if the time of testing is sufficiently long for some con-
solidation to occur so that an appropriate extrapolation of strains can be
made.
To make a correct guess about such long-term behavior of frozen soil
under a given stress increment, it is essential to be able to correctly es-
timate the position of the long-term applied stress point relative to the
long-term failure surface of the frozen soil in the principal stress space.
Fig. 2 shows schematically, in the diagonal (o-2 = 03) plane of the prin-
cipal stress space, the traces of short and long-term failure surfaces, such

^SHORT TERM STRENGTH

RELAYED STRENGTHS
SERVICE LIFE STRENGTH

FIG. 2.—Traces of Time-Dependent Strength Surfaces for Frozen Soil in Diagonal

Plane of Principal Stress Space [after Ladanyi (8)]
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J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 as one would expect to obtain for a plastic frozen soil under triaxial test
conditions. For any loading path terminating in a point such as A, below
the long-term strength surface, one can expect to get an attenuating creep
of the frozen soil, while for a loading path terminating beyond the long-
term strength surface, in a point such as B, the creep will be of a non-
attenuating type and it may finish in failure after a sufficient time. In
any case, however, the shape of the time-settlement curve will also be
affected by the amount of consolidation involved in the total response,
the amount of which depends on the unfrozen water content of the soil
and the shape of the loading path. Quite generally, considering com-
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bined effects of consolidation and creep, one can anticipate that an in-
creasing amount of consolidation will generally contribute to the non-
linearity of the time-settlement curves, as shown schematically in Fig. 3.
Detailed analyses of the different failure surfaces, and interactions be-
tween soil particles, ice, and unfrozen water, under a given stress in-
crement, have been presented elsewhere (8,11). Only some general con-
clusions relative to the foundation design will be repeated here:

1. The true long-term or lower bound strength of a frozen soil may

be defined as the strength that the frozen soil would attain if stressed
under drained conditions for a very long period of time (t -» °°). This
strength cannot be lower than that which the same soil would attain if
stressed unfrozen in the same manner. This implies that the true long-
term strength of a frozen sand could not be lower than its unfrozen
shear strength, while that of a frozen clay could not fall below its un-
frozen effective shear strength, in terms of c' and §'• This statement
does not apply to very ice-rich soils in which the soil particles are com-
pletely surrounded by ice. The behavior of such soils under load is sim-

HARD FROZEN:
time, t

FIG. 3.—Expected Shape of Time-Settlement Curves of Shallow Foundations In

Permafrost. Q„ Denotes Load Producing Zero Long-Term Settlement Rate
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J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 ilar to that of polycrystalline ice, whose true long-term strength under
ordinary permafrost temperatures is known to be close to zero (17,18).
2. In the design of foundations, the true long-term strength is con-
sidered to be much too conservative and is usually replaced by a service
life or operational strength which is obtained by extrapolating the creep
data to appropriate time intervals, obtained by multiplying the required
service life by a factor of safety. This operational strength should not
fall below the true long-term strength of the soil defined under 1.
In the light of this analysis, it appears that, for ice-saturated soils at
usual permafrost temperatures and at ordinary foundation loads, which
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usually exceed the true long-term strength of the soil, one can expect to
get in most cases a settlement of a nonattenuating type. The available
evidence (24-27) shows that such settlement may be either of a steady-
state type, when consolidation is absent [Fig. 3(b)], or remain nonlinear
with time when consolidation represents an important portion of the
total response [Fig. 3(d)],

FROZEN SOIL PROPERTIES NEEDED IN DESIGN

Under non-failure conditions, the behavior of a frozen soil can be con-

sidered to be similar to that described by the nonlinear Maxwell body,
with a linear or nonlinear spring in series with a nonlinear dashpot. If
a constant stress increment is applied to such a body, the resulting strain
will be composed of an instantaneous and a time-dependent (creep)
portion:
€ = Ctast + € „ (1)

or in terms of strain rates

e = etast + eCr • (2)
in which the dot denotes the differentiation with respect to time, t.
If the instantaneous portion of the total strain, e, is found to be gov-
erned by Hooke's law, the methods for determining the elastic settle-
ment of an ice-saturated frozen soil will not differ from those in un-
frozen soils, provided a proper account is taken of the variation of Hooke's
parameters, E and v, with the soil temperature below the foundation.
On the other hand, the instantaneous strain or settlement may also
contain a plastic component. In an ice-saturated frozen soil this may
happen if an instantaneous plastic bearing capacity failure is produced
shortly after the load application. In an ice-poor unsaturated frozen soil,
such as in a loose sand weakly cemented by ice, instantaneous settle-
ment may occur also because of the plastic collapse of the sand struc-
ture, leading to its local compaction.
In order to predict the instantaneous response to load of a shallow
footing founded on an ice-saturated frozen soil, one will need the short-
term values of the deformation parameters, E and v, and the corre-
sponding short-term strength of the soil. These can be determined either
on laboratory samples by means of rate and temperature-controlled triaxial
tests, or, alternatively, by performing certain field tests, such as borehole
pressuremeter and dilatometer tests, described by Ladanyi and Johnston
(14) and Ladanyi (10), or static cone penetration tests (9,12).
1439

J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 On the other hand, the relevant values of instantaneous settlement in
unsaturated loose frozen soils can be predicted on the basis of ordinary
odometer tests on undisturbed frozen samples, or on the basis of the
relative density values, if the bearing soil is a loose ice-unsaturated sand.
In any case, the instantaneous settlement due to structural collapse can-
not be greater than that of the same soil in unfrozen state.
As far as the creep portion of strain is concerned, it is usually assumed
in the creep literature (5) that the effects of stress, time, and temperature
on the creep strain can be expressed by three mutually independent
functions, so that
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€cr = F(<j,t,T) «/i(a)/ 2 (0/ 3 (T) (3)

Probably the oldest form of creep equation for frozen soils is Eq. 4
which was proposed by Vyalov (24) for creep in uniaxial compression
(subscript "cr" for creep is omitted):
at
. (4)
.<o(e + ec)fcJ '
in which 6 = the number of degrees Celsius below the freezing point;
0C = 1° C = the reference temperature; and m, X, co, k = constants that
depend on the properties of the material.
While retaining the same type of three functions as in Eq. 4, this writer
has since 1972 (7) used instead a dimensionally balanced creep law, fol-
lowing Hult (5):

\crcue/ \b J
in which ec and acuf> = the reference values of strain rate and stress.
Comparing Eq. 5 with Eq. 4, it is found that the respective parameters
are related by the expressions b = \/m, n = 1/m, and
.fmic\
c» = < — (6)

1 +
^J (7)
Here crc„0 denotes the reference stress in uniaxial compression at e =
e c , extrapolated to 0° C, as shown in Ref. 7. For example, for the Han-
over Silt (1), the values of the preceding parameters would be: b = 0.151,
n = 2.04, k = 0.87, and acuo = 2.247 MPa, for ec = 10~5 h" 1 , and 6C =
1°C.
If the effect of all three principal stresses is taken into account, by
using an extended von Mises law for creep and failure, it is found that
there are two ways of writing the creep and creep strength equations
under triaxial compression conditions.
The two represent a family of straight circular cones in the principal
stress space, but in one of them the cones have a constant slope angle,
while in the other, the cone angles vary with the strain rate. The fol-
lowing equations are written for steady-state creep conditions, but can
be put in a primary creep form as will be shown later:
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J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 ^><sr><s;>e!

(a) Hard Frozen (b) Plastic Frozen

FIG. 4.—Simplified Failure Envelopes for Hard ("Cold") and Plastic ("Warm") Fro-
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zen Soils

1. For cold ice-rich soils, containing very little unfrozen water, which
do not consolidate under confining pressure but show an increasing brit-
tleness with increasing strain rate, an acceptable assumption may be that
the slope of the cone angle increases with increasing strain rate. Such a
family of cones is given by the equation (Ref. 7, Eqs. 88-89) [Fig. 4(a)]:
l/n
o> = Vfu(l ~ sin <|>c) + 3<rm sin <\>A — (8)

in which vef and k.ef = the values at failure of the von Mises equivalent
stress and strain rate, respectively;CT,„= 1/3 (CTI + CT2 + rj3) = the mean
normal stress; and §c = the slope angle of a Coulomb envelope at ee =
e c . The value of the uniaxial compression strength, <jfu, is given by
l/n

Vfu ~ Vcntl (9)

in which acue = the reference stress given by Eq. 7 and corresponds to
the rate e c .
For non-failure conditions, the creep rate is governed by

e. = e. (10)
o- rae (l - s i n c)>c) + 3o-m s i n cf>c_
2. For a relatively warm, ice-poor frozen soil, containing large quantities
of unfrozen water, which consolidates under confining pressure, the grain-
to-grain contact is more easily established so that the angle, $, may re-
main approximately constant during creep. In that case, it may be more
appropriate to use the following strength and creep equations (Ref. 7,
Eqs. 84-85) [Fig. 4(b)]:
ife - oy«(l _ sin 4>) + 3rjm sin § (11)
•e - 3<Tm sin 4>
(12)
(Tc„9(l - sine))).
in which angle $ is now independent of strain rate. When using these
equations it should be noted that, for axial symmetry conditions, i.e.,
a2 =CT3, e2 = e 3 , ve = (CTJ - CT3), and ie = 6], while for plane strain, i.e.,
cx2 = 1/2 (a! + <x3), e 2 = e j ,CT,= (V3/2)(ff! - CT3), and ie = (2/V3) ei.
If one wants to use these equations for primary creep conditions, this
can be done easily, according to Hult (5), if the time-hardening as-
1441

L
J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.
 sumption is adopted by replacing everywhere the time, t, by the time
function, tb, and the reference rate, ec by (ic/b)b. For the creep rate equa-
tions such as Eqs. 10 and 12, this means that their right-hand side should
be multiplied by d{th)/dt = bth~\
From the preceding general expressions, one can deduce the following
formulas for calculating vertical creep strains below the center of a cir-
cular footing, carrying a constant load:
1. For a cold, ice-rich frozen soil, from Eq. 10:
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<Ti - 0- 3
(13)
b .CTCU9(1 - sin 4>c) + (ffi + 2CT3) sin (|>c.
2. For a warm, ice-poor frozen soil, from Eq. 12:
id <Ti — <T3 — (CTJ + 2cr3) sin cf>
(14)
orrae(l - sin 4))
Both equations reverse to Eq. 5 if (f> = (j>c = 0.
In practice, the effect of confining pressure on creep settlement of
foundations is often neglected because it leads to a safer design (16). In
addition, in ice-rich soils at low strain rates, the angle <j>c is very small
and can be neglected. In fact, for such ice-rich soils, where there is little
grain-to-grain contact, a safe strength, or upper bound of creep strain
rate, may be close to that valid for the polycrystalline ice under the same
conditions, according to Morgenstern, et al. (18). From a great number
of carefully analyzed data, these authors conclude that for polycrystal-
line ice a general creep rate equation may be written as

(15)

with ec = 0.01 yr _ 1 ; and n = 3. For a c „ e , from their data, the writer finds
that the effect of temperature may be expressed by Eq. 7, with the fol-
lowing parameters: For 1° C < 6 < 2° C, acuo = 38 kPa, k = 0.67; for 2° C
< 0 < 10° C, acuo = 55 kPa, k = 0.33; or as an average for the whole
investigated interval: For 1 < 0 < 10° C, ucm = 50 kPa, k = 0.37.
The methods for evaluating the basic creep parameters in the preced-
ing equations, both from the laboratory and the field tests, are well de-
scribed in the literature (1,10,12,14). Nevertheless, as mentioned before,
while such parameters may be valid for limited periods of time, any
long-term extrapolation of the data for settlement prediction should be
made while keeping in mind that, under favorable temperature condi-
tions, even a frozen soil may consolidate with time bringing about cor-
responding changes in the creep rate and some gain in strength. Very
little is presently known about these consolidation-related effects.

METHODS FOR EVALUATING CHEEP SETTLEMENT

Essentially, three different methods have been proposed for calculat-

ing the creep settlement of foundations in permafrost under vertical load.
The first method, advanced by Ladanyi and Johnston (13) and Ladanyi
(8), based on the expanding cavity model, offers a possibility of finding
1442

J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 directly the solutions of creep settlement and creep failure problems of
circular and strip foundations, provided the frozen soil below the footing
has homogeneous and isotropic creep properties. The second method,
described by Linell and Lobacz (16), based on the linear-elastic Boussi-
nesq stress distribution, does not need the latter assumption but cal-
culates the total settlement by adding together the settlement of indi-
vidual layers below the footing, the properties of which may vary due
both to the change in the type of soil and the variation of soil temper-
ature with depth. Finally, the third method, proposed by Nixon (19), is
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a numerical one and takes into account nonlinear soil behavior.

In practice, although the first method is more advanced because it
takes into account the triaxiality of stresses, the second method may be
more appropriate for shallow foundations because of considerable de-
sign temperature variations usually encountered below the footing at a
shallow depth (Fig. 1).
Nevertheless, if the soil below the footing is homogeneous and its
maximum temperature does not vary much within the depth equal to 2
or 3 footing widths below the footing, so that an average temperature
and a corresponding representative creep equation can be assumed, it
is noted that the creep settlement and settlement rate can be determined
by using the methods described in Refs. 8 and 13, the validity of which
has been checked by comparison with direct observations by several in-
vestigators (15,18,19,22,28).
From Refs. 8 and 13, Nixon (19) concluded that for an ice-rich soil ((f>
= 0) and for small values of settlement, the settlement rate, s, of a footing
in uniform frozen soil can be expressed by the equation (in our notation)
as

'-'i'.®" <*>
in which B = the foundation width or diameter; q = the applied vertical
pressure; n and ac (for a given ec) = the creep parameters; and I = the
influence factor, which depends on the footing shape.
Approximate values of I can be obtained from the cavity expansion
theories developed by Ladanyi and Johnston (13) and Ladanyi (8). These
values are:

For a circular footing: Ic = I/ —

3 \ I" (17)

J
/nV3\/V3\ n A/3\"
For a strip footing: s < = | — — II I -1.361 I (18)

These equations take into account the nonlinearity of the stress strain
behavior of the soil and are considered to be more appropriate for frozen
soils than the Boussinesq solution, especially for higher values of n. Nixon
(19) also shows a third solution of the same problem obtained by Hoff's
analogy (4) and valid for a nonlinear soil behavior. The resulting vari-
ation of I with n falls approximately on straight lines in a log I versus n
plot, which enables the following empirical expressions to be deduced:
1443

J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 For a circular footing: Ic « 6.85 exp (-1.52 n) (19)
For a strip footing: Ist = 9.92 exp (-1.44 n) .. (20)
Fig. 5 shows a comparison between the results obtained by these three
methods.
When comparing the calculated I-values, it is found that the cavity
expansion theories tend to overpredict the settlement rates up to a factor
of 2 in the area of 2 < n < 4, when compared with the numerical method.
The same result was also found by Sego (22). As shown in Fig. 5, for n
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> 3, while the cavity theories come closer to the numerical solution, the
Boussinesq linear-elastic stress distribution leads to a high overpredic-
tion of settlement rates.
As for the second method for creep settlement calculation, the pro-
cedure described in Refs. 16 and 20, which consists in dividing the sub-
soil into several layers with well defined creep properties and in cal-
culating the creep strains resulting from a Boussinesq linear-elastic stress
distribution in each layer, seems quite acceptable for practice. If based
on Eqs. 4 or 5, the method will usually overpredict the creep strains
because it neglects the effects of stress triaxiality and soil consolidation.
A better prediction could probably be obtained if Eqs. 13 or 14 are used
instead.
The ultimate settlement, remains, of course, always bounded by that
which the same soil would undergo if unfrozen.

EFFECT OF DEPTH OF B U R I A L

For creep settlement in nonlinear viscoelastic materials, such as soils

and ice, no solution of this problem exists at this moment, but from the

CIRCULAR FOOTING

SPHERICAL CAVITY

•BOUSSINESQ

01 r

0.01 0.01
2 3 4 5 ""1 2 3 4 5
creep exponent, n

FIG. 5.—Influence Factors for Creep Settlement of Shallow Footings on Perma-

frost [After Nixon (19)]

1444

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J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 TIME, DAYS
0 10 20 30 40 SO
M _
oUP l e
"-2A_ q.MPa:
i—as
T =-2.3 °5"- ^Oe
D/B=1.25
B=16CIT
D/B=0.625

^s/B=12 V
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D/B=0

FIG. 6.—Effect of Depth of Burial on Settlement of Circular (B = 16 cm) Test Plates

in Ice, at -2.3° C [After Vyalov, et al. (27)]

available experimental data (22,27) one can conclude that, at small rel-
ative settlements (s/B < 1%), i.e., in an essentially elastic and visco-
elastic regime, the effect of embedment is felt similarly as predicted in
linear elasticity. In one reported case of a footing on ice (27), the total
settlement was reduced to about one-half when the relative depth, D /
B, increased from 0-1.25 (Fig. 6).
On the other hand, as observed by Sego (22), when a punch settles
more than about 5% of its diameter, the soil enters into a visco-plastic
regime and the effect of the depth of burial becomes much smaller. In
fact, in his punching tests in ice, Sego (22) found that under a constant
rate of penetration, the punching resistance attained a peak at about s/
B = 5% followed by a resistance decrease continuing even to s/B = 50%.
Under such conditions, no effect of the depth of burial could have been
detected between D/B = 0.5 and 3.3 in ice (22), and between D/B = 5
and 15 in frozen sand (15). This finding obviously gives some support
to the use of cavity expansion theories for settlement and settlement rate
determination of shallow footings in permafrost, even if such theories
are strictly valid only for cavities in an infinite medium.

EFFECT OF LOADING HISTORY

Surprisingly little well documented information is available in the lit-

erature at present about the whole creep settlement behavior of full-scale
footings on frozen soils when loaded in one single, or several successive
stages. For small-scale footings some interesting results were obtained
by Vyalov, et al. (27), who studied the settlement of 16 cm diam punches
on blocks of ice (Fig. 6). The load was increased in five successive stages,
each of them 10 days long. In these tests, the instantaneous settlement
was rather high, while an essentially constant settlement rate was at-
tained already after 1 or 2 days.
A similar finding was made by Ladanyi and Paquin (15) who carried
out deep plate loading tests with circular punches, 3.57 cm diam,
embedded in a saturated frozen sand. In these tests a constant settle-
ment rate usually started after 1-5 days under constant load, but the
instantaneous settlement was negligible (Fig. 7).
In addition, when the load in these tests was cycled in several stages,
it was found that the settlement rate remained a function of the loading
1445

J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Time, t, years
\ Test P3 0 4 8 12 16 20
-
\ T=-6°C - Of
2 =T^TJT
4 s (1)q=245kPa
\ q = 18.07 MPa, 1 = 21.03 hours
6 -3 o
.-s/B=10£
-4 Q)

'J-UJ-iM_J4J_LJ_l_iy M J I
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\ 4.01 MPa, 98.05 h

<D 4
'^ -2 2
2T ___757_MPa, 48.05 h
- a 6 (2) q =367 kPa
-3 1
-s/B = 102'
\ 1 3 . 8 0 M P a , 24.52 h to 8 -4 I

°n-MJU-MJLU-L4J LU'
-
(3)q = 392 kPa,
\ 20.92 MPa, 3.75 h

-s/B= 10#
1 1 1 1 1 1 1

FIGS. 7.—Results of Cycled Stage-Loaded FIG. 8.—-Results of Three Long-Term

Test on Circular Plate (3.57 cm Diam, Plate-Loading Tests in Permafrost (Cir-
45.7 cm Deep) Embedded in Frozen cular Plates, 70.5 cm Diam) [After Vy-
Sand [Based on Data by Ladanyi and alov (26)]
Paquin (15)]

history only until the penetration resistance of the soil was completely
mobilized, which happened after the total accumulated settlement at-
tained about one-third of the footing diameter.
How a footing may behave under light loads and on a relatively warm
frozen soil, with a high unfrozen water content, can be seen from the
long-term footing settlement test results reported by Vyalov (26) (Fig.
8). In these tests, which represent the longest continuous test record of
this kind published up to now, three circular plates of 70.5 cm diam,
embedded 3 m inside a plastic-frozen silty clay, at a temperature of —0.1
to -0.5° C, were loaded in one stage with loads of 0.25, 0.37, and 0.39
MPa, respectively, and their settlement was observed continuously for
19 yr. Even if one excludes the last 9 yr of observation in which the soil
temperature decreased by 1 to 2° C, the first 10 yr of the tests show a
nonlinear shape of settlement curves such as one would expect from
combined effects of distortional creep and consolidation [Fig. 3(d)]. This
experience shows that one must be very careful when trying to predict
the long-term settlement of footings in warm frozen soils from the re-
sults of short-term creep settlement tests.

CONCLUSIONS

After reviewing all presently available information on the creep set-

tlements of shallow foundations resting on frozen soils, one comes to
the conclusion that some proposed theoretical methods have a good po-
tential for predicting such settlements when their main source is the dis-
tortional creep. In that case, the relevant soil creep data can be obtained
either from laboratory triaxial tests or from field tests, such as borehole
1446

J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 creep tests and static cone penetration tests.
However, m u c h less is k n o w n as yet about h o w to predict the settle-
ment of footings on relatively w a r m frozen soils with large quantities of
unfrozen water, in which hydrodynamic consolidation and volume creep
represent a large portion of the total settlement. This situation points to
an urgent need for a systematic study of the behavior u n d e r stress of
such frozen, partially b o n d e d materials, both u n d e r cold room a n d full-
scale field conditions.
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APPENDIX.—REFERENCES

1. Andersland, O. B., Sayles, F. H., and Ladanyi, B., "Mechanical Properties

of Frozen Ground," Geotechnical Engineering for Cold Regions, O. B. Anders-
land and D. M. Anderson, eds., McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y.,
1978, 566 p.
2. Brodskaia, A. G., "Compressibility of Frozen Ground," NTIS No, AD715087,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., 1962 (translated from
Russian).
3. Handbook for the Design of Bases and Foundations of Buildings and Other Structures
in Permafrost, U.S.S.R.—GOSSTROI, Moscow, National Research Council
Canada, 1969, Transl. TT 1865, 1976.
4. Hoff, N. J., "Approximate Analysis of Structures in the Presence of Mod-
erately Large Creep Deformations," Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, Vol. 12,
1954, pp. 49-55.
5. Hult, J. A. H., Creep in Engineering Structures, Blaisdell Publishing Co., Wal-
tham, Mass., 1966.
6. Johnston, G. H., ed., Permafrost. Engineering Design and Construction, John
Wiley and Sons, Canada, 1981.
7. Ladanyi, B., "An Engineering Theory of Creep of Frozen Soils," Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 9, 1972, pp. 63-80.
8. Ladanyi, B., "Bearing Capacity of Strip Footings in Frozen Soils," Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1976, pp. 95-110.
9. Ladanyi, B., "Use of the Static Penetration Test in Frozen Soils," Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1976, pp. 95-110.
10. Ladanyi, B., "Stress- and Strain-Rate-Controlled Borehole Dilatometer Tests
in Permafrost," Proceedings, Workshop on Permafrost Engineering, held in
Quebec, P.Q., Tech. Memo 130, ACGR-NRCC, Ottawa, Canada, 1980, pp.
57-60.
11. Ladanyi, B., "Mechanical Behaviour of Frozen Soils," Mechanics of Structured
Media, A. P. S. Selvadurai, ed., Elsevier Publishing Co., Amsterdam, 1981,
Part B, pp. 205-245.
12. Ladanyi, B., "Determination of Geotechnical Parameters of Frozen Soils by
Means of the Cone Penetration Test," Proceedings, Second European Sym-
posium on Penetration Testing, Amsterdam, Vol. 1, 1982, pp. 671-678.
13. Ladanyi, B., and Johnston, G. H., "Behavior of Circular Footings and Plate
Anchors Embedded in Permafrost," Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. II, 1974,
pp. 531-553.
14. Ladanyi, B., and Johnston, G. H., "Field Investigations of Frozen Ground,"
Geotechnical Engineering for Cold Regions, O. B. Andersland and D. M. An-
derson, eds., McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y., 1978, 566 p.
15. Ladanyi, B., and Paquin, J., "Creep Behavior of Frozen Sand under a Deep
Circular Load," Proceedings, 3rd International Conference on Permafrost, Ed-
monton, Alberta, Vol. 1, 1978, pp. 679-686.
16. Linell, K. A., and Lobacz, E. F., "Design and Construction of Foundations
in Areas of Deep Seasonal Frost and Permafrost," U.S. Army C.R.R.E.L.,
Special Report 80-34, Hanover, N.H., 1980.
17. McRoberts, E. C , "Shallow Foundations in Cold Regions: Design," Journal

1447

J. Geotech. Engrg. 1983.109:1434-1448.

 of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol. 108, No. GT10, Oct., 1982,
pp. 1338-1349.
18. Morgenstern, N. R., Roggensack, W. D., and Weaver, J. S., "The Behaviour
of Friction Piles in Ice and Ice-Rich Soils," Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol.
17, 1980, pp. 405-415.
19. Nixon, J. F., "Foundation Design Approaches in Permafrost Areas," Cana-
dian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 15, 1978, pp. 96-112.
20. Phukan, A., and Andersland, O. B., "Foundations for Cold Regions," Geo-
technical Engineering for Cold Regions, O. B. Andersland and D. M. Anderson,
eds., McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y., 1978, 566 p.
21. Sanger, F. J., "Foundations of Structures in Cold Regions," U.S. Army, CRREL,
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by KANSAS STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on 07/19/14. For personal use only.

Monograph III-C4, Hanover, N.H., 1969.

22. Sego, D., "Deformation of Ice Under Low Stresses," thesis presented to the
University of Alberta, at Edmonton, Alberta, in 1980, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
23. "Shallow Foundations on Frozen Soil: A Bibliography," ASCE Committee on
Shallow Foundations of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, Journal of the
Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol. 108, No. GT2, Feb., 1982, pp.
285-291.
24. Vyalov, S. S., "Rheological Properties and Bearing Capacity of Frozen Soils,"
U.S.S.R. Academy of Science, Moscow, 1959, Transl. No. 74, U.S. Army
CRREL, Hanover, N.H., 1965.
25. Vyalov, S. S., ed., The Strength and Creep of Frozen Soils and Calculations for
Ice-Soil Retaining Structures, Moscow, 1962, Transl. 76, U.S. Army CRREL,
Hanover, N.H., 1965.
26. Vyalov, S. S., "Long-Term Settlement of Foundations on Permafrost," Pro-
ceedings, 3rd International Conference on Permafrost, Edmonton, Alberta, Vol.
1, 1978, pp. 898-903 (in Russian).
27. Vyalov, S. S., Dokuchayev, V. V., Sheinkman, D. R., Gaidayenko, E. I., and
Goncharov, Y. M., "Ground Ice as the Bearing Stratum for Construction,"
U.S.S.R. Contribution Vol., 2nd International Permafrost Conference, Yak-
utsk, U.S.S.R., 1973, F. J. Sanger, ed., National Academy of Sciences, Wash-
ington, D.C., 1978, pp. 537-545.
28. Weaver, J. S., and Morgenstern, N. R., "Pile Design in Permafrost," Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 18, 1981, pp. 357-370.

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