Experimental study on shear characteristics of the silty clay soil-ice interface

During the spring thawing, the decrease of soil-ice interface strength by temperature may lead to slope instability. For this reason, some researchers have explored the relationship between temperature and soil-ice interface strength. However, previous studies have not systematically explored the change law of strength at the soil-ice interface from negative temperature to 0 °C. Therefore, direct shear tests were conducted at different shear temperatures and different moisture contents. The effects of temperature and moisture content on strength, cohesion, and internal friction angle are analyzed, while the shear failure mechanism of specimens at different temperatures is discussed according to the location of the shear failure surface. The results show that: Shear properties of soil ice specimens are related to the unfrozen moisture content. The strength of the sample decreases with increasing temperature, and the change in strength is most significant from − 2 to − 0 °C. The strength reduction in this range is from 21.8 to 74.8%, and the higher the moisture content the more obvious this phenomenon is. The shear index tends to decrease with the increase of unfrozen water content, and the greater the increase of unfrozen water, the faster the decrease of both, especially in stage 2. When the temperature is higher than − 5℃, the failure surface is located above the soil-ice interface, and the strength of the specimen is similar to that of the frozen soil. When the temperature is − 10℃, the shear damage surface appears at the soil-ice interface, and the strength of the specimen is determined by the strength of the soil-ice interface.