Image Analysis for the Quantification of a Developing Crack Network on a Drying Soil

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

doi:10.1520/gtj102216

Cited by 65 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…7 shows that the majority of cracks that intersect the edges of the container do so at right angles. Additionally, a detailed image analysis of the crack pattern shows that the majority of the cracks intersect other cracks also at right angles (Lakshmikantha, Prat, and Ledesma 2009). This is typical of clays in which cracking is sequential because of tensile failure, leading to orthogonal patterns, while materials in which simultaneous cracking occurs or failure is due to shear result in near hexagonal patterns with intersections at 120° (Costa, Kodikara, and Shannon 2013;Hartge and Bachmann 2000).…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Extensive use is made of image analysis techniques for the evaluation of geometrical parameters, and the results are shown in Tables 1-4. For simplicity, the method developed earlier by the authors (Lakshmikantha, Prat, and Ledesma 2009) was chosen. Characterization of soil properties and features by means of nondestructive methods such as image processing is a growing field (Almhdie et al 2014;Aydemir, Keskin, and Drees 2004;Liu et al 2011;Liu et al 2013;Peng et al 2006; Shit, Bhunia, and Maiti 2015) not only for geometrical and surface characterization but also for more fundamental soil properties (Lu and Kaya 2013).…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The investigation into the pattern structure of the crack network as it evolves during drying was performed using a method previously developed by Lakshmikantha, Prat, and Ledesma (2009). The method yields several parameters that can be used to characterize the crack network: the number of cells into which the specimen is divided, the average area of those cells, their aspect ratios, the average crack width, the crack density factor or CDF (Miller, Mi, and Yesiller 1998), etc.…”

Section: Crack Pattern Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: Figmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Crack Pattern Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2018

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“…Due to the lack of an accepted American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard, desiccation tests have been conducted in a variety of ways with different boundary conditions, specimen geometry, and properties measured [1][2][3][4][5]. By utilizing a bar of clay seated on a grooved plate, the cracks only propagate in that same direction, creating a series of parallel cracks that can be easily analyzed for aperture and spacing [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Improvement of the Crack Resistance of Cohesive Soils

Izzo

Miletić

2019

Sustainability

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Desiccation cracking of cohesive soils is the development of cracks on the soil surface as a result of a reduction in the soil moisture content. The decrease in soil surface area owing to the desiccation of cohesive soils has an undesirable impact on the mechanical, hydrological, thermal, and physico-chemical properties. Many efforts have been made to improve the desiccation crack resistance of cohesive soils, but the current solutions raise a number of environmental issues, increasing the demand for sustainable soil improvement alternatives. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate novel eco-friendly soil improvement techniques, such as recycled carpet fibers and a gelatin-based bioplastic, and their effect on desiccation cracking in cohesive soils. The improvement of soil crack resistance was studied by conducting desiccation cracking tests on plain and improved soils. In addition, image processing was conducted to quantitatively describe the effect of soil improvement type on the geometrical characteristics of crack patterns. Each soil improvement technique enhanced the soil strength and reduced cracking at room temperature, at an elevated temperature, and when subjecting to cyclic wetting and drying. The addition of bioplastics proved to be the most effective solution, thus demonstrating a viable option to advance future sustainable engineering practices.

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“…The formation and propagation of discontinuities in solids and porous media is a very challenging problem that is driving the development of both experimental [16,18,28,34,38,39] and advanced numerical techniques [2,3,14,31,42]. In this context, the mesh fragmentation technique (MFT) in conjunction with high aspect ratio (HAR) elements has been used with success to model the problem of formation and grow of drying cracks in soils [40], as well as the problem of fracture generation and propagation in concrete structures [22,23,37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An orthotropic interface damage model for simulating drying processes in soils

et al. 2017

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The study of drying process in soils has received an increased attention in the last few years. This is very complex phenomenon that generally leads to the formation and propagation of desiccation cracks in the soil mass. In recent engineering applications, high aspect ratio elements have proved to be well suited to tackle this type of problem using finite elements. However, the modeling of interfaces between materials with orthotropic properties that generally exist in this type of problem using standard (isotropic) constitutive model is very complex and challenging in terms of the mesh generation, leading to very fine meshes that are intensive CPU demanding. A novel orthotropic interface mechanical model based on damage mechanics and capable of dealing with interfaces between materials in which the strength depends on the direction of analysis is proposed in this paper. The complete mathematical formulation is presented together with the algorithm suggested for its numerical implementation. Some simple yet challenging synthetic benchmarks are analyzed to explore the model capabilities. Laboratory tests using different textures at the contact surface between materials were conducted to evaluate the strengths of the interface in different directions. These experiments were then used to validate the proposed model. Finally, the approach is applied to simulate an actual desiccation test involving an orthotropic contact surface. In all the application cases the performance of the model was very satisfactory.

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Image Analysis for the Quantification of a Developing Crack Network on a Drying Soil

Cited by 65 publications

References 55 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

Sustainable Improvement of the Crack Resistance of Cohesive Soils

An orthotropic interface damage model for simulating drying processes in soils

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