Paper contribution

Exposure Time Dependency of Freeze and Thaw Damage on Hard Rocks

Ayten Ceyda Koseomur; Ahmet Gunes Yardimci

Proceedings
EUROCK 2026
Pages
325-330
Submitted
28 January 2026
Accepted
15 June 2026
Published
12 August 2026

Summary

Abstract

Under extreme weather conditions, freeze–thaw (FT) cycles have the potential to compromise the long-term stability of surface and underground rock structures. Pore pressure induced by volumetric expansion of water leads to crack formation through debonding of mineral grains. Although various studies have explored the correlation between the number of cycles and the degradation of mechanical parameters, the influence of FT cycle rate on damage evolution under equivalent exposure durations has received limited attention. This study investigates the short- and long-term effects of slow and fast FT cycles on the mechanical properties of andesite, selected to represent hard rock behavior. Each cycle follows a temperature path between −20 °C and +10 °C, lasting one week under the slow FT regime and 5.5 hours under the fast FT regime. Exposure durations of 2 weeks and 4 weeks were applied under both regimes to enable direct comparison at equivalent total durations. Static deformability tests were conducted for both FT regimes, while triaxial compression and indirect tensile (Brazilian) tests were performed exclusively on slow FT specimens. The results indicate that FT cycle rate plays an important role in stiffness degradation: slow FT specimens exhibit no significant change in Young’s modulus, whereas fast FT conditioning induces a progressive reduction of approximately 33% over 4 weeks. These findings highlight the need to consider thermal cycling rate alongside total exposure duration in durability assessments of rock structures in cold-region engineering applications.

Contributors

Authors

  1. Ayten Ceyda Koseomur Middle East Technical University, Mining Engineering Department, Turkiye
  2. Ahmet Gunes Yardimci Middle East Technical University, Mining Engineering Department, Turkiye

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References

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