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TANG Chao-sheng, CUI Yu-jun, Anh-minh Tang, SHI Bin. Shrinkage and desiccation cracking process of expansive soil and its temperature-dependent behaviour[J]. Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 2012, 34(12): 2181-2187.
Citation: TANG Chao-sheng, CUI Yu-jun, Anh-minh Tang, SHI Bin. Shrinkage and desiccation cracking process of expansive soil and its temperature-dependent behaviour[J]. Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 2012, 34(12): 2181-2187.

Shrinkage and desiccation cracking process of expansive soil and its temperature-dependent behaviour

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  • Received Date: December 17, 2010
  • Published Date: December 24, 2012
  • During drying, expansive soil shrinks and induces desiccation cracks on surface due to water evaporation. The presence of cracks significantly weakens soil structure and stability, and results in various engineering problems. Better understanding the processes of shrinkage and desiccation cracking is essential in analyzing drought effects on buildings constructed on expansive soil. As temperature is one of the most important external factors that control the hydro-mechanical behaviour, desiccation tests are therefore conducted on initially saturated expansive soil slurry to investigate the temperature effects on shrinkage and cracking characteristics. Nine specimens are prepared and dried under 22°C, 60°C and 105°C respectively. Water loss and surface crack evolution are monitored during the whole drying period. The image processing technique is employed to quantitatively characterize the crack pattern, and surface crack ratio Rsc is determined to describe surface cracking extent. In addition, the filling method is used to measure the crack volume by using pure sands. It is found that the initial evaporation rate of soil water is constant and increases with increasing temperature; the drying period that needs to reach the residual water content decreases with increasing temperature; and the initial critical water content wIC at the onset of cracking is significantly influenced by temperature as temperature increases from 22 to 105 °C, wIC increases from 38.0 to 90.9%. After crack initiation, it is found that the ratio Rsc increases slowly at the beginning stage, and then increases quickly even when water content decreases slightly. However, as the water content reaches the final critical water content wFC or shrinkage limit, Rsc gradually reaches stabilization, and the effect of temperature on wFC is insignificant. The experimental results also show that the desiccation cracking behaviour of expansive soil significantly depends on environmental temperature; in general, the higher the temperature, the more the development of cracks on specimen surface.
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