Application of an asymptotic homogenization method for determining the widening coefficient of a water-saturated porous medium under freezing

The paper presents an asymptotic method for determining the expansion of a porous medium filled with a liquid during its freezing. A closed-form formula for the expansion coefficient is derived in the case of open pores. For enclosed pores, the coefficient is a second-order tensor in general. Its determination requires to solve the so-called local problems in the representative domain. The resulting technique can be used to determine the effective expansion coefficient in the case of freezing water in the soil. The proposed method is demonstrated using model and realistic geological structures.