Desiccation cracking behavior of vegetated soil with various dry densities

Desiccation cracking in vegetated slopes is a common phenomenon. In order to investigate the desiccation cracking characteristics of a vegetated soil, a series of desiccation tests are carried out in this study. The vegetated and bare soil groups with four different dry densities (1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 g/cm³) are selected. The weight of each soil sample is regularly measured, and the development of surface cracks is monitored. A self-developed system CIAS is adopted to quantitatively analyze the surface crack pattern during the drying process. The experimental results show that: (1) The evapotranspiration rate of the vegetation soil decreases with the increase in the dry density. (2) Compared with the bare soil, the vegetated soil sample has a slower water loss rate and a smaller critical water content under a certain dry density. (3) The dry density has a significant influence on the desiccation cracking behavior of vegetated soils. The larger the dry density, the larger the water content corresponding to the formation of the crack network pattern. (4) With a given dry density, the vegetated soil has a smaller surface crack ratio and an average crack width, but a larger crack density compared with the bare soil.