A Homeowners Guide to Freeze-Thaw Cycles + 5 Tips for Protecting Your Concrete

The measured samples were accurately compressed to their 0.9MDD level, as presented in Table 2. These approaches will enable geotechnical engineers to predict material behavior, identify internal mechanisms, and develop strategies to minimize the impact on geo-infrastructure, resulting in safer and more resilient construction. There is a knowledge gap regarding how the expansion, shrinkage, and chemical reactions of sulfate minerals in geomaterials and cemented infrastructures can induce significant reinforcements under varied loading and environmental conditions. The influence of expansive natural materials on geo-infrastructures can be profound, often resulting in foundation cracks, structural tilting, and compromised integrity.

2.2 Implications of using sulfate minerals

• NanoTemper’s instrument Tycho NT.6 (see Tycho NT.6 on nanotempertech.com) can be used to determine optimal handling conditions by quantifying the fraction of unfolded protein in a sample within seconds.
• These phenomena are macro views of the freezing and thawing that naturally occurs in soil.
• Summary of freeze-thaw effects of natural expansive material and their implications in geotechnical engineering.
• The maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures in one freeze-thaw cycle under 0 cm.F were lower than those under other conditions, and the freezing duration was longer.

The lyophilized samples were utilized for surface morphology and pore size analysis. The FESEM images were captured using the Sigma-300 microscope from Zeiss, Germany, at different magnifications. The pore size distributions in the sample were observed through the Mercury Intrusion Pore Size Analyzer (PM-20) of Quantachrome. Elemental studies were also performed using the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) method using the Sigma-300, Zeiss. In addition, X-ray diffraction and a pH meter were used to measure the variation in pH and mineralogy of non-amended and BB-amended soils for further insights into the effects of biochar on soil behaviour over time51.

Nonlinear materials add another dimension to light scattering

Biochar typically lowers soil bulk density and enhances soil structural quality through improved soil aggregation9. Its positive impacts encompass increased porosity, enhanced aggregate stability, improved moisture retention capacity, more efficient water flow dynamics, and optimized gas exchange10. Frost heaving is primarily affected by factors such as temperature and pressure, and the details of each factor are expressed below. However, it is important to recognize that the study of this phenomenon requires a comprehensive understanding of multiple contributing factors (Lu et al., 2021). The change in volume resulting from the freezing of water and the subsequent melting of ice serves as the fundamental trigger for soil deformation within a freezing-thawing environment.

• In this study, granite samples collected from the Luanshibao Landslide in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau were subjected to a maximum of 120 freeze–thaw cycles at two temperature paths (− 10–20 °C and − 20–20 °C).
• The NRL forms films that infiltrate and fill the pores and microcracks within the soil-cement matrix.
• Variations in mineral content, particle size and moisture content can affect its swelling characteristics and performance.
• In clayey soils, UCS values showed an initial increase with biochar addition, reaching an optimum before decreasing with further increments18,19,20.
• Our research enriches the theoretical research on wetland ecological processes and functions, which will aid in the accurate assessment of climate change’s effects on wetlands.

The resulting swelling pressure creates a dense structure that fills capillary pores and effectively seals fractures, cracks, and void spaces, thus preventing the migration of radioactive materials over long periods (Komine, 2004; Liu et al., 2019; Klik et al., 2022). Al-Gharbawi et al. (2022) investigated the swell and contraction behavior of expansive soils, primarily composed of montmorillonite, in response to water content changes. The study focused on using 5%, 7%, and 9% lime, cement, and silica fume to stabilize soils.

2.2 Expansion mechanism of sulfate minerals

Variation of Soil water characteristics curve of BB-amended CL soil over suction range under (a) Unconfined and (b) confined sample condition. The variation of mean pore diameter of (a) CL and (b) SM soil of the UCS specimen cured for 30th day for non-amended and 2% (w/w) biochar amended case. The research of frost heaving damage caused by fracture extension length under the freezing conditions. The reaction process of these compounds causes concrete expansion, and microcrack formation, and facilitates the entry of harmful ions, accelerating concrete damage.

The expansion of sulfate minerals is influenced by evaporation-based precipitation and anhydrite-aqueous solution mechanisms, making it crucial to assess risks and implement mitigation strategies for geological and engineered structures. Summary of natural expansive materials and expansion behavior in geo-infrastructure. Summary of freeze-thaw effects of natural expansive material and their implications in geotechnical engineering. To investigate microbial nitrogen metabolism under the carry-over effects of freeze-thaw, we selected the N-cycling genes from the annotation results to recalculate their relative abundance and alpha and beta diversity. Furthermore, some selected key N-cycling genes (Supplementary Table 4) were used to calculate the genetic potential of N-cycling metabolic processes according to the method in previous studies75,76,77. At the manufacturing scale, thawing using a water bath set at either 25 ± 2 °C or 37 ± 2 °C provides an option for fast thawing as compared to conventional thawing of proteins at either controlled room temperature conditions (20 ± 5 °C) or refrigerated (5 ± 3 °C) thawing.

It identifies the importance of balancing different excipients with an overall goal of sufficiently reducing or eliminating aggregation and developing a stable and scalable formulation. The results demonstrated that the freeze–thaw damage of mAb-1 in aqueous solutions was significantly reduced by identification of optimal freeze–thaw conditions using first a small-scale model with subsequent at-scale verifications. The work provides a framework for successful transfer of drug product manufacturing process from small-scale to the manufacturing scale production environment especially for molecules that are susceptible to freeze–thaw induced degradations.

These air bubbles create additional space in the concrete that can accommodate the expanding ice, thereby reducing the overall pressure and preventing damage. For instance, in regular concrete, the pressure exerted by the freezing water causes the concrete to expand in volume. Nevertheless, in air-entrained concrete, the presence of micro-pores created by the air-entraining agents allows the ice to form within these spaces, leading to a contraction rather than expansion (Sun and Scherer, 2010). The expansion of the crystal layer (lattice) occurs when there is a change in the expansive mineral under the action of water or in a humid environment.

Winterization is the process of preparing your pool to withstand the colder months, especially if you live in an area where temperatures regularly dip below freezing. It involves securing and protecting the pool equipment from harsh weather, preserving the water quality, and reducing maintenance needs while the pool isn’t in use. Winterizing ensures that your Endless Pool will remain safe, secure, and ready to enjoy when the weather warms up. The Brazilian tests were conducted by a microcomputer-controlled uniaxial testing machine with a maximum load of 2000 kN and an accuracy of ± 1%. The samples were positioned between the upper and lower bearing plates of the test machine to guarantee uniform radial pressurization. The displacement-based loading approach was employed with a constant rate of 0.5 mm/min.

Engineering construction in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau plays a strategic role in the social and economic development in China. ProGorki is the most tectonically active, climate sensitive, and geomorphologically diverse region in the world, which is why engineering construction in the region poses many major scientific and engineering problems1,2,3. The coupling of temperature and stress fields triggered by freeze–thaw cycles leads to the deterioration of physical and mechanical properties of rock masses, which indirectly induce geohazards such as landslides and collapses4,5,6,7. For example, Chiarle et al. deduced that rock slope stability at high altitudes has become more sensitive to climate change in the last decade8.