Cracking behaviour of fine-grained soils: from laboratory testing to numerical modelling

Abstract

Many experimental evidences suggest that desiccation cracks in clay initiate as a result of the mobilization of soil tensile strength. However this mechanical approach disregards the cohesionless and effective stress-dependent behaviour of fine-grained soil. On the other hand recent findings in the literature suggest that effective stress-dependent shear failure criteria would be appropriate to explain the mechanisms of desiccation cracking for tensile total stress states. This work aims at assessing the validity of a shear failure criterion to predict the onset of cracking in clay forms exposed to air drying. Clay forms of various geometries were experimentally subjected to non-uniform hydraulic and mechanical boundary conditions. Time and location for crack initiation are monitored using a digital camera. Cracking experiments are then modelled in a hydro-mechanical framework using an effective-stress shear failure criterion. The comparison of simulations with experimental results for both the time and the location of cracking allows assuming that cracking occurs due to failure in shearing.