Modeling thawing settlement of soil under changing climate

The undergraduate students will work with a PhD student mentor and the PI to simulate the thawing process numerically. In particular, we will prepare consolidated frozen specimens. An undrained triaxial loading will be prescribed via the climate-controlled triaxial apparatus (cf. W911NF-15—1-0442) under controlled temperatures (e.g. -5 and -10 Celsius degree). Then temperature will gradually be increased in multiple steps. The stress-strain relationship will be monitored and the students will be given the chance to observe how thawing leads to deformation of geological materials. Meanwhile, a computer model, which is based on the research from W911NF-15-1-0581 and W911NF-18-2-0306, will be modified by the PI and the student mentor to create input files for numerical simulations of undrained triaxial compression tests under controlled temperatures. The students will then run simulations with different settings and material parameters to gain experience in numerical modeling of multiphysical problems.