Size Effect in the Cracking of Drying Soil

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

doi:10.1007/1-4020-4972-2_682

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…There has been, in the recent past, a large amount of published research related to size effect of brittle or quasibrittle solids (Bažant 1984;Bažant et al , 1994Mazars and Bažant 1989;Sulem and Vardoulakis 1989;Kazemi 1990a, 1990b;Mazars et al 1991;Tang et al 1992;Bažant and Jirásek 1993;Bryars et al 1994;Bažant and Planas 1998). However, research on this topic related to soils or other similar geologic media has been scarce (Finno 1989;Sture et al 1999;Bažant et al 2003;Ávila 2004;Prat et al 2006).…”

Section: Fracture Mechanics and Size Effectmentioning

confidence: 93%

Experimental evidence of size effect in soil cracking

2012

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Results of an experimental study on the formation of crack patterns during drying of a soil paste are presented. The objective is to ascertain whether fracture mechanics plays a significant role in explaining the process of formation and propagation of cracks during drying of soils due to changes in environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity. The experiments consist of five geometrically similar rectangular specimens in two series of different thicknesses, subjected to drying conditions in an environment-controlled laboratory. Cracking initiates shortly before the soil reaches a near-solid quasi-brittle consistency. Although crack initiation can be explained by classical soil mechanics effective stress theory, crack development and propagation appear to be energy-driven. The results prove that cracking stress does depend on the size of the specimen and suggest that fracture mechanics might be applicable to soil cracking, at least in the context of the present research. Fracture toughness of the soil used was determined using compact tension tests at different water contents. Its tensile strength was also determined by a direct method for two natural specific weights (bulk density) and two dry specific weights with different water contents.Résumé : Cet article présente les résultats d'une étude expérimentale sur la formation de fissures durant l'assèchement d'une pâte de sol. L'objectif est de vérifier si la mécanique des fractures joue un rôle significatif dans l'explication des processus de formation et de propagation de fissures lorsqu'un sol sèche en raison de changements dans les conditions environnementales, comme la température et l'humidité. L'expérimentation consistait à soumettre cinq échantillons de géométrie similaire et ayant deux séries d'épaisseurs différentes à des conditions d'assèchement dans un environnement contrôlé de laboratoire. Les fissures sont initiées tout juste avant que le sol atteigne une consistance presque solide et quasi-fragile. Cependant, même si l'initiation des fissures peut être expliquée par la théorie des contraintes effectives classiques de la mécanique des sols, le développement et la propagation des fissures semblent être contrôlés par l'énergie. Les résultats prouvent que la contrainte de fissure dépend de la taille de l'échantillon, et suggèrent que la mécanique des fractures peut être applicable aux fissures dans les sols, du moins dans le contexte de cette étude. La résistance aux fractures du sol utilisé a été déterminée à l'aide d'essais en tension compacts à différentes teneurs en eau. Sa résistance en tension a aussi été déter-minée par une méthode directe pour deux poids spécifiques naturels (densité globale) ainsi que pour deux poids spécifiques secs à différentes teneurs en eau.Mots-clés : fissure dans le sol, dessiccation, effet de taille, résistance en tension, résistance aux fractures, mécanique des fractures.[Traduit par la Rédaction]

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Section: Fracture Mechanics and Size Effectmentioning

confidence: 93%

Experimental evidence of size effect in soil cracking

2012

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“…(Kayyal, 1995;Cui et al, 2005 ;Prat et al, 2006;Rodríguez et al, 2007). At a higher temperature, the water molecule motion velocity and kinetic energy is higher, and the viscosity, the interfacial tension of water and the water retention capacity of soil are lower (Tang and Cui, 2005).…”

Section: Temperature Dependence Of Water Evaporation Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The non-exhaustive applications mentioned above explains the large attention paid by researchers and scientists to the desiccation cracking phenomenon for clayey soils (Lau, 1987;Montgomery and Parsons, 1990;Corser and Cranston, 1991;Morris et al, 1992;Abu-Hejleh and Znidarcic, 1995;Ayad, 1997a, 1997b;Ayad et al, 1997;Miller et al, 1998;Yesiller et al, 2000;Péron et al, 2006;Prat et al, 2006;Nahlawi and Kodikara, 2006). Basically, shrinkage is mainly due to water loss by evaporation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as soil is a highly complex material, its desiccation cracking behavior is governed by a large number of factors such as mineral composition, clay content, relative humidity, layer thickness and size, boundary conditions, etc. (Fang, 1997;Albrecht and Benson, 2001;Nahlawi and Kodikara, 2006;Prat et al, 2006;Lakshmikantha et al, 2006;Rodríguez et al, 2007;Tang et al, 2007). Even though many works have been focused on this issue, the essential mechanism of desiccation cracking is still not well understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experiment evidence on the temperature dependence of desiccation cracking behavior of clayey soils

Tang

Cui

Tang

et al. 2010

Engineering Geology

260

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When drying a clayey soil, shrinkage and then cracking on soil surface occur due to water loss by evaporation, this phenomenon seems to be temperature dependent. In the present work, experimental tests were conducted on saturated slurry to investigate the desiccation cracking behavior at three temperatures (22, 60 and 105 °C). The initiation and propagation of desiccation cracks during drying was monitored using a digital camera. By applying computer image processing technique, the surface crack ratio (R SC ) which is the ratio of the surface area of cracks to the total surface area of specimen, was defined to quantify crack networks at different water contents. The experimental results show that the initial critical water content (w IC ), which corresponds to the initiation of desiccation crack, increases with temperature rise. After the initiation of a crack, the ratio R SC increases with decreasing water content and then keeps almost constant when the water content becomes lower than the critical water content (w FC ). By comparing the cracking curve with shrinkage curve, it has been found that the cracking curve, to some extent, reflects the shrinkage properties of soil since the w FC is related to the shrinkage limit and slightly influenced by temperature.

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“…The saturation degree decreases with time and soil shrinks producing cracks. Many authors have investigated the formation of these cracks; principally, these studies deal with experimental tests of cracking process controlling environmental conditions [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. However, little research has been made in laboratory tests controlling all environmental variables at the same time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved climatic chamber for desiccation simulation

Lozada

Caicedo

Thorel³

2016

E3S Web Conf.

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Abstract. The climatic chamber at the Universidad de Los Andes was improved for modeling desiccation in soil layers. This chamber allows the measurement of different environmental variables. In this research, evaporation tests were conducted in water imposing boundary conditions for drying, and then these tests were performed in a soil layer. The soil was prepared from a slurry state and was drying controlling the temperature, the infrared radiation, the wind velocity, and the relative humidity. In the first part of this paper, a description of the climatic chamber, operation ranges and theoretical work principles of the climatic chamber are presented. Then, the second part shows the results for desiccation in water and soil. The desiccation tests performed with the climatic chamber allow simulating all environmental conditions accurately during drying coupling the effect of all environmental variables. As a result, the evaporation rate increases with infrared radiation in soil and water. The rate at the beginning of the desiccation tests in clays is the same as in water. However, this evaporation rate decreases as the soil becomes desiccated.

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Size Effect in the Cracking of Drying Soil

Cited by 15 publications

References 8 publications

Experimental evidence of size effect in soil cracking

Experimental evidence of size effect in soil cracking

Experiment evidence on the temperature dependence of desiccation cracking behavior of clayey soils

Improved climatic chamber for desiccation simulation

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