Experimental Investigation of the Desiccation Cracking Behavior of Soil Layers during Drying
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 23, Issue 6
Abstract
Desiccation cracking in drying soil is a common natural phenomenon, and it significantly impacts the soil’s mechanical and hydraulic behavior. In this study, experimental desiccation tests were conducted on an initially saturated soil layer. Several aspects of the behavior of the soil—water evaporation, volume shrinkage, crack initiation, and propagation—were investigated. By applying image processing techniques, the geometric or morphological characteristics of the crack patterns were quantitatively described. The results show that cracking occurred during the constant evaporation rate stage, when the soil was still fully saturated at a water content of 41%. A growing crack obeys certain objective laws, and it finally splits the soil surface into relatively regular patterns: The first crack generally occurs on surface defects at the bottom of “potholes” and at the fringe of aggregates. Cracks intersect with one another at right angles, and the final crack pattern is dominated by square shapes. Most cracks develop before the air entry point (), and surface desiccation cracking tends to terminate after the shrinkage limit () is reached. In addition, this paper discusses the suction and tensile strength development involved in desiccation cracking initiation, and some explanations for various phenomena are also presented.
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Acknowledgments
The writers gratefully acknowledge that this work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. NNSFC41072211), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Grant No. UNSPECIFIED20090091120037), and the State Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. NNSFC40730739). The writers would like to give special thanks to Dr. Sue Struthers for correcting the English in this paper.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 23 • Issue 6 • June 2011
Pages: 873 - 878
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 20, 2010
Accepted: Dec 1, 2010
Published online: Dec 4, 2010
Published in print: Jun 1, 2011
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