The processes by which frost shatters rock are subject to controversy. The main objective of the proposed research is to develop a new methodology for experimentally testing a model of ice segregation in permafrost. Using specialist cold-room facilities in the CRNS Centre de Geomorphologie, Caen (France), the methodology will simulate the bedrock thermal and hydrological regime at the top of cold permafrost in order to determine whether growth of segregated ice within the simulated permafrost shatters a large block of frost susceptible rock (chalk). Verification of the ice-segregation hypothesis by the proposed experiment would have international significance to the fields of permafrost science, engineering and rock weathering because it would emphasise the unified nature and consequences of ground-ice development in fine-grained soils and rocks.