Evidences of Hierarchy in Cracking of Drying Soils

Lakshmikantha, M. R.; Prat, Pere C.; Ledesma, Alberto

doi:10.1061/9780784412787.078

Cited by 16 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The existence of a sequence in the crack formation was first reported from experimental studies in desiccating latex gels (Bohn 2005) and starch-water mixtures (Bohn, Pauchard, and Couder 2005;. However, no attempt has been made until recently (Costa, Kodikara, and Shannon 2013;Lakshmikantha, Prat, and Ledesma 2013) to study experimentally the existence of such a sequence in the cracking of soils.…”

Section: Fig 20mentioning

confidence: 99%

Boundary Effects in the Desiccation of Soil Layers with Controlled Environmental Conditions

2018

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This article presents the results of an experimental research carried to investigate the mechanics of cracking of soil layers under drying conditions. The tests were conducted under controlled laboratory conditions and in an environmental chamber with circular and rectangular specimens to investigate the effect of the boundary conditions (size, shape, and aspect ratio of the specimens and containers) on the process of initiation and propagation of cracks and on the final crack pattern at the end of desiccation. The tests in the environmental chamber were conducted with imposed temperature and relative humidity and provided new insight into the mechanics of the formation of cracks in a drying soil, and they showed that cracks can initiate either at the top, bottom, or at both surfaces of the drying specimen. The results also reveal how the crack patterns are controlled by the existing mechanical and hydraulic boundary conditions. The cracks seem to form sequentially in patterns that can be explained by three key factors: stresses higher than the tensile strength, the direction of the generated stresses, and the stress redistribution in the vicinity or inside the newly formed domain. In order to substantiate the sequential nature of the crack pattern formation, experimental evidences showing the existence of a cracking sequence during the laboratory desiccation experiments are presented and analyzed.

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Section: Fig 20mentioning

confidence: 99%

Boundary Effects in the Desiccation of Soil Layers with Controlled Environmental Conditions

2018

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“…From the experimental point of view, several authors have studied this process since the early twentieth century [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] and many significant experimental and numerical contributions have been made in the last half-century [2,7,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. An exhaustive state of the art can be found in the doctoral theses of M.R.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, until the development of Unsaturated Soil Mechanics, the problem has not been analysed considering the parameters that govern the behaviour of soil in the unsaturated state, primarily suction. Tensile strength, which is suction dependent, and fracture toughness are shown to be also relevant parameters [25,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical and experimental study of initiation and propagation of desiccation cracks in clayey soils

Levatti

Prat

Ledesma

2019

Computers and Geotechnics

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This paper presents the fundamentals and the mathematical formulation to study desiccation cracking in soils based on Unsaturated Soil Mechanics as well as a numerical analysis of a previous desiccation test program. The numerical approach implemented in MATLAB is used in 2D simulations on radial sections of the cylindrical specimens and in a theoretical study of the stress field in plane strain conditions. The numerical analysis, based on two stress stare variables (total net stress and suction) is consistent and in good agreement with the experimental results, including the location of cracks and time of crack initiation.

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“…Image processing techniques were adopted to obtain the morphologies of cracks on the surface of soil specimens . Although many cracks appear on the exposed surface of the soil specimens, there are others within the specimens . X‐ray, magnetic resonance, or electrical resistivity tomography, which may need expensive equipment or complicated setups, were used to detect the inner cracks of soil specimens .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A subgrade cracking monitoring sensor based on optical fiber sensing technique

Liu

Zhou

Wang

et al. 2018

Struct Control Health Monit

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Summary The presence of cracks is ubiquitous and a major concern for subgrade. Effective detection and quantification of cracks in soil specimens or structures are the prerequisites for understanding the generation of cracks and their impacts. This paper introduces a cracking monitoring sensor for subgrade structure based on the Brillouin optical time domain analysis/reflectometry technique. The proposed sensor has been applied for the subgrade cracking monitoring of a test section of He‐da highway in China. The total covering length of the installed sensors is more than 200 m. Sensor data have been collected four times within a freezing and thawing cycle between November 2015 and May 2016. The test results prove that the proposed sensor has high survival rate after installation and high accuracy in cracking detection and quantification. The field application demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed sensor in systematic performance monitoring of pavement structure.

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Evidences of Hierarchy in Cracking of Drying Soils

Cited by 16 publications

References 8 publications

Boundary Effects in the Desiccation of Soil Layers with Controlled Environmental Conditions

Boundary Effects in the Desiccation of Soil Layers with Controlled Environmental Conditions

Numerical and experimental study of initiation and propagation of desiccation cracks in clayey soils

A subgrade cracking monitoring sensor based on optical fiber sensing technique

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