Abstract: To investigate the temperature and deformation characteristics of the silty clay foundation under the effect of the frost heaving, the discrete element software MatDEM is used to simulate the frost heaving of the artificial freezing project of Zhengzhou Erqi square metro station. The phase change latent heat model is established to extract the temperature and displacement results to compare with the measured data in the field. The results show the following: (1) The model can effectively simulate the frost heaving of silty clay foundation, and combination application of the phase change latent heat theory can better effectively simulate the frost heaving effect of silty clay. (2) The vertical displacement nephogram of soil shows a radial spread in the process of frost heaving, while displacement increases first then decreases.

Key words: artificial freezing method, discrete element, latent heat of phase change, numerical simulation, onsite monitoring