Hydromechanical behavior of a quasi-saturated compacted soils on drying-wetting paths-experimental and numerical approaches

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation funded by the French National Project "Terredurable", which is devoted to the study of soils in quasi-saturated state. The experimental study is focused on the behavior of compacted soils on drying-wetting paths and the macroscopic effect of the drying path on shrinkage and cracking. Furthermore, a protocol for image analysis of crack in drying tests was developed. Two approaches are used for the measurement of surface strains and identification of the ultimate stress before the formation of the first crack, using VIC-2D software, and for the monitoring of crack evolution, using ImageJ software. The aim of the numerical approach is to reproduce the drying experiments with a finite difference code (FLAC 3D), in order to understand the stress conditions that can explain crack initiation, without modeling the crack formation itself.