{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T14:03:30Z","timestamp":1785420210907,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780963200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["52478437"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["52478437"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["52478437"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["52478437"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002767","name":"Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2024JJ5027"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024JJ5027"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002767","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Materials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The long-term deformation and stability of silty sand roadbeds subjected to repeated freeze\u2013thaw cycles and traffic loading remain ongoing engineering concerns in seasonally frozen regions. To investigate the evolution and influencing factors of accumulative axial plastic deformation of silty sand under freeze\u2013thaw cycles, this study focused on silty sand from a roadbed construction site in Inner Mongolia, China, a typical seasonally frozen region. Dynamic triaxial tests were conducted under loading stresses of 60\u2013100 kPa, confining pressures of 20\u201360 kPa, water contents ranging from OMC to 1.2 OMC, and freeze\u2013thaw cycles of 0\u201310. The results indicate that approximately 60\u201380% of the total accumulative axial plastic deformation occurs within the first 1000 loading cycles, after which the deformation growth rate gradually decreases. Increases in loading stress, water content, and freeze\u2013thaw cycles promote deformation, whereas higher confining pressures suppress it. For example, increasing the confining pressure from 20 to 60 kPa reduced the final deformation from 0.16% to 0.07%, while increasing the number of freeze\u2013thaw cycles from 0 to 10 increased the final deformation from 0.10% to 0.28%. Based on the experimental data, a new predictive model considering net stress, octahedral shear stress, water content ratio, and freeze\u2013thaw cycles was developed. The model demonstrates high accuracy in predicting accumulative plastic deformation, with a coefficient of determination of 0.915, and is applicable to both plastically stable and weakly plastic creep conditions. This study provides a reference for the design, construction, and mitigation of subgrade damage in silty sand roadbeds in seasonally frozen regions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ma19122461","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T09:46:54Z","timestamp":1780998414000},"page":"2461","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Experimental Investigation and Predictive Modeling of Cumulative Plastic Deformation of Silty Sand Under Freeze\u2013Thaw Cycles and Cyclic Loading"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Dongkai","family":"Ma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Traffic and Transportation on Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhongming","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Traffic and Transportation on Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410004, China"},{"name":"National Engineering Research Center of Highway Maintenance Technology, Changsha 410004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yiwei","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Traffic and Transportation on Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhenhong","family":"Yan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Traffic and Transportation on Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chao","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103331","DOI":"10.1016\/j.coldregions.2021.103331","article-title":"Ground Temperature and Deformation Characteristics of Anti-Freeze-Thaw Embankments in Permafrost and Seasonal Frozen Ground Regions of China","volume":"189","author":"Tai","year":"2021","journal-title":"Cold Reg. 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