Computer simulation is only as valid as the information that's entered and the program that runs it.
And on-site or field testing is expensive and unreliable. To eliminate these uncertainties we needed a facility where full-scale investigations could be conducted under controlled conditions all year round. We wanted to study the effects of low temperatures and frost action on road and airfield pavements, and we needed to be able to conduct full-scale testing of buried pipes to evaluate thermal effects in permafrost areas as well as in seasonally freezing and thawing environments. We wanted to examine frozen soil dynamics, foundations in frozen soils, and off- road mobility under freezing and thawing conditions. The Frost Effects Research Facility totally eliminates the if factor in conducting cold-climate experiments.