Researchers are making exciting progress on the NSF-funded Multi-Scale Characterization of Permafrost project, led by principal investigators Mohammad Khosravi of Montana State University and Ali Khosravi of Auburn University. As part of the effort, the MSU and AU teams are collaborating with the NHERI UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM) to develop a general-purpose experimental container with an integrated cooling system that can be mounted on the CGM 9-meter geotechnical centrifuge.

This experimental setup will enable accelerated modeling under elevated g-levels, effectively compressing months or years of natural freeze–thaw and degradation processes into hours of simulated time. Such hyper-gravity testing allows researchers to capture temporal effects that are difficult to observe in situ, providing new insight into the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes governing permafrost behavior under varying climatic conditions.

The system, comprising a chiller and a heat exchanger, was designed and tested under 1-g conditions at Montana State University. Once implemented at the UC Davis centrifuge facility, it will significantly enhance CGM’s capabilities for cold-region experimentation and support future research on frozen ground and permafrost systems.

The project marks a major milestone toward enabling large-scale hyper-gravity testing of frozen ground and permafrost systems.
 

Award abstract: Collaborative Research: Multiscale Characterization of Permafrost and Frozen Soil Properties: Bridging Micro- and Macro-Scales, CMMI 2400391

 

 

Project kick-off meeting at the UC Davis CGM in November 2024. From left: Dan Wilson (UC Davis), Ali Khosravi (Auburn University), Joe Eldring (Montana State University), Mohammad Khosravi (Montana State University), and Jason DeJong (UC Davis).

Chiller and heat exchanger system tested at Montana State University for an NSF-funded cold-region centrifuge project. The system was designed to provide controlled cooling for permafrost and frozen-soil experiments and has been validated under 1-g conditions at MSU.

MSU PhD student Syed Haider Sherazi preparing a soil specimen for 1-g testing at Montana State University as part of an NSF-funded cold-region centrifuge project.

MSU PhD student Syed Haider Sherazi at the NHERI UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM), where he has relocated to support the installation and integration of the chiller system with the 9-m geotechnical centrifuge. He is conducting commissioning and validation experiments to enable large-scale hyper-gravity testing of frozen ground and permafrost systems.