## 1 Introduction  
Prediction of physical changes and rock weathering during the freeze-thaw cycle is important because it plays an important role in controlling the long-term global climate, and influences the development landscapes, the formation of soil and the preservation of buildings and monuments [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6]. The changes in rock durability can cause reduced shear strength of the rock and discontinuities (or joint surfaces), leading to issues such as overall slope failure or localized rockfall, and contributing to the gradual destruction of the structure [7]. Prediction of the durability of rocks allows the limit of validity to be estimated, which makes it possible to decide the appropriate time for maintenance and repair of rock-based historical monuments, roadside riprap, railway subgrade, pipelines, built heritage and buildings [8]. These structures are exposed to the variable atmosphere changes for long periods of time. Exposure to long-term environmental changes could result in cumulative damage to the rocks. In the process of rock weathering, climate can be considered as a major factor in inner structure or built structure damages due to possible wear and disintegrate of rocks. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [9; 10] investigated climate change effects on cultural heritage weathering and suggested solutions for their conservation and survival. In addition, [PERSON] et al. [11] stated that temperature increase due to climate change could melt the upper frozen soil layer and decrease number of freeze-thaw cycles; therefore,problems of structural safety of building, road, and buried pipes could occur. However, experts, such as architects and geologists, centuries ago were not likely to make the connection between rock weathering and most built structural damages, including collapse and abrasion [12]. High temperature variation (freeze-thaw actions) of rocks and presence of water are major factors influencing weathering of rocks in polar regions. However, the rock temperatures are not easy to track continuously. For this reason, air temperature near the Earth surface is generally used to indirectly estimate exposed rock temperature [13; 14], even the air temperature in polar regions is not representative of the temperature of rocks exposed to the Earth surface. The difference in temperature between the exposed rock and adjacent air result from different solar radiation and specific heat of the air and rock. Generally, when the air temperature is below zero degrees Celsius in polar regions, the temperature of rocks at the surface is slightly higher due to solar irradiation [15]. Although the air temperature does not accurately represent rock temperature, in terms of freeze-thaw, counting freezing cycles based on temperature below zero degrees Celsius can have a large effect on the number of valid freeze-thaw cycles [15; 16; 17]. Since, the method of using air temperature to determine the number of freeze-thaw cycles was utilized by various studies [9; 10; 11; 18], it is necessary to investigate future and past rock properties' changes from freeze-thaw weathering based on air temperature changes [11]. There are many studies [17; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26] on the effect of natural or artificial freeze-thaw cycles on rock weathering. [PERSON] [19] investigated water saturation effect resulting from rock weathering due to freeze-thaw cycles. [PERSON] et al. [20] estimated degree of freeze-thaw rock weathering under natural condition. [PERSON] et al. [21] examined engineering properties of rocks based on physical and mechanical parameters under repetitive freeze-thaw conditions. [PERSON] et al. [17] assessed freeze-thaw environment in nature and reflected the results on estimation of physical and mechanical rock properties. [PERSON] et al. [22] studied on degradation of engineering properties of sandstone; while [PERSON] et al. [23] investigated basic engineering properties of rocks and the effect of rock strength reduction due to freeze-thaw cycles.