Installation of soft, collapsible soil in triaxial device!

[Patgeotech]

I have been investigating the possibilities of freeze-thaw testing of a uniform material (milled material) with the idea of modeling its soil behaviour (stress path behaviour), but I'm having problems with regards to: How best to undertake such testing? and what are the consequences to freezing the samples in order to place in the triaxial device (i.e. what damage is done to the internal soil structure? and how can it be prevented?
I would appreciate anyones suggestions??

 

[DRC1]

Frost action usually expands the soil as the water expands. If it is a cohesionless material, it could probably be returned close to the orginal state under a reconsolidation load. Cohesive soils may rupture and have a significantly lower cohesion. For cohesionless soils, we used to recompact the sample on the pedestal,holding out the membrane with a vaccum. Once the sample was complete, the piston was set on top of the sample and the membrane was sealed to the piston. (There is a porus stone top and bottom. The vaccum is switched to flow through the sample(via the saturation lines). The chaber is then placed, sealed and flooded- SLOWLY. Once the chamber is flooded, it is pressurized to a point where the vaccum can be turned off. Once the vaccum is turned off, the sample is saturated until there is a good B parameter and then the cell pressure and verticle load are adjusted for the test. Always keep the cell pressure ahead of the verticle load. It is tricky until you get a feel for it, so plan on a couple of practice runs first

GOOD LUCK