The artificial freezing method is extensively used in the reinforcement of engineering strata in various regions for shaft excavation and subway connection channels. In this study, representative rock and soil strata from different regions were subjected to low‐temperature physical and mechanical performance tests. The results show that, compared with Cretaceous and Jurassic rock and soil strata, deep topsoil and shallow coastal topsoil have high water content, low thermal conductivities, high frost heave rates, and high freezing temperatures. In addition, the results show that, as the curing temperature decreases, the uniaxial compressive strengths and elastic moduli of deep topsoil and shallow coastal topsoil increase almost linearly. The strength of the sandy soil strata is the highest, followed by the cohesive soil strata, and the strength of the mucky soil and the calcareous clay is the lowest. The strength of the frozen wall and the waterproof requirements must both be taken into account in the freezing design. Deep Cretaceous and Jurassic rocks can have high strength of more than 5 MPa under normal temperature conditions. An increase in the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus with decreasing curing temperature is mainly manifested within the range from the normal temperature to −10°C. The strength can reach more than 10 MPa at −10°C, and only the strength requirements of the frozen wall need to be considered in the freezing design. At low temperatures, deep topsoil and shallow coastal topsoil are dominated by the form of compression failure. The average failure strain at −10°C is typically greater than 5%. When excavating the strata, it is essential to pay attention to the effect of creep. The failure strain of deep Cretaceous and Jurassic rocks is between 1% and 2%, and the breaking and sudden collapse of surrounding rocks should be prevented.

The accumulative strain of sand-containing soft soil is crucial to the stability of the construction of embankment engineering such as expressways and high-speed railways. However, little attention has been devoted to the accumulative strain of sand-containing soft soil. In the current study, a series of cyclic triaxial tests were performed to investigate the accumulative strain of sand-containing soft soil reinforced by cement and sodium silicate under traffic loading. In addition, the accumulative strain model was proposed to describe the characteristic of accumulative strain. The results show that for the specimens with a high sand content (25%, 30%, and 35%), the accumulative strain increases obviously with the increase of the sand content. For the specimen with a cement content of 3%, the accumulative strain increases distinctly with the increasing loading time. The accumulative strain is strongly influenced by confining pressure. When the repeated cyclic stress amplitude is greater than 0.17 kN, the increase rate of accumulative strain is greater. The shorter the curing time is, the greater the accumulative strain is. The calculated results of the accumulative strain model show a good agreement with test data. Hence, the accumulative strain model can better describe the characteristic of accumulative strain.

In this study, based on the background of massive freezing engineering in coastal strata, the thermal physical parameters and some freezing laws of soil were obtained through soil thermal physical tests and frozen soil frost heaving tests. When the freezing temperatures were −5°C, −10°C, −15°C, and −20°C, the frost heaving rates of the soil were 0.53%, 0.95%, 1.28%, and 1.41%, and the frost heaving forces of the soil were 0.37 MPa, 0.46 MPa, 0.59 MPa, and 0.74 MPa, respectively. In the range of test conditions, the frost heaving rate and the frost heaving force of the soil increased with the decrease of the freezing temperature, and the relationship was roughly linear with the temperature. The entire cooling process could be roughly divided into three stages: active freezing stage, attenuation cooling stage, and stability stage. The range of the frozen soil expansion did not increase linearly with the decrease of the freezing temperature, and there was a limit radius for the frozen soil expansion. A three‐dimensional finite element model was established to simulate the temperature field and frost heaving of the soil under the on‐site working conditions. The entire frost heaving process could be roughly divided into two stages. The calculated temperature values and the frost heaving force values were compared with the on‐site measured values, and the results verified that the numerical calculation could accurately reflect the temperature field and frost heaving law of the formation.

Based on the analysis of the temperature measurement data of the Shanghai Metro Line 15 cross passage freezing project, it was found that the gray silt layer of cross passage No. 2 outperforms that of cross passage No. 1 on the freezing effect, which is mainly attributed to the large loss of cooling capacity in the latter passage. Within the same stratum, the soil temperature at the duct piece is higher than that of the deep soil. When the soil freezes for 45 days, the temperatures of the sandy silt and gray silt layers of the same cross passage drop to −8.25°C and −6.91°C, respectively, indicating that the freezing effect of the sandy silt layer is better than that of the gray silt layer. Moreover, simulations were performed for deviation freezing pipes, nondeviation freezing pipes, and different freezing pipe diameters in the cross passage No. 1, respectively. It was found that the maximum difference of the closure completion time between the deviation and nondeviation freezing pipes is 6 days. Furthermore, for deviation freezing pipes and nondeviation freezing pipes at the center of the cross passage, the minimum difference in the freezing wall thickness reduces from 0.45 mm after 20 days of freezing to 0.06 mm after 45 days of freezing, indicating that the difference in the freezing wall thickness gradually weakens as freezing develops gradually. The deviation freezing pipe increases the spacing of freezing pipes in the deep soil. As the pipe spacing increases, the influence of the pipe diameter on the closure completion time of the freezing wall decreases.

Some zones of freezing curtains of subway contact channels are subjected to compression and tension. Thus, understanding the mechanical properties and relationship between the compressive and flexural strengths of frozen soil is crucial. In this regard, this study considered sandy soil from Fuzhou as an example to perform uniaxial compressive and three-point flexural strength tests under different moisture content and curing conditions. The results showed that the uniaxial compressive and three-point flexural strengths of frozen soil were directly correlated with the moisture content and inversely correlated with curing temperature. Moreover, the compressive strength was significantly higher than the flexural strength, and the ratio was between 1.68 and 3.41. The sensitivity analysis for two factors affecting the strength was performed using the grey correlation analysis method. The moisture content showed a stronger effect on the uniaxial compressive strength of frozen sand. In contrast, the curing temperature substantially affected the three-point flexural strength. This study provides a reference for optimizing the freezing scheme for subway connection channels.