Investigation into freezing point depression in soil caused by NaCl solution

Abstract

Engineering practices illustrate that the water phase change in soil causes severe damage to roads, canals, airport runways and other buildings. The freezing point is an important indicator to judge whether the soil is frozen or not. Up to now, the influence of salt on the freezing point is still not well described. To resolve this problem, a series of freezing point tests for saline soil were conducted in the laboratory. Based on the relationship between the freezing point and the water activity, a thermodynamic model considering the excess Gibbs energy was proposed for predicting the freezing point of saline soil by inducing the UNIQUAC (universal quasi-chemical) model. The experimental results show that the initial water content has little influence on the freezing point if the initial water content is higher than the critical water content, while the freezing point decreases with the decrease of the water content if the initial water content is lower than the critical water content. Moreover, it is found that the freezing point is related to the energy status of liquid water in saline soils and it decreases with the increase of the salt concentration. Moreover, the freezing point depression of saline soil is mainly caused by the decrease of water activity. Compared with the other two terms, the residual term, accounting for the molecular interactions, has an obvious influence on the water activity. This result is helpful for understanding how salt concentration affects the freezing point of saline soil and provides a reference for engineering construction in saline soil areas.