Numerical Modeling of Desiccation Cracking in Compacted Soils

Desiccation cracking and its implications will be more of an issue due to the global warming trends. Soils tend to shrink when they lose moisture. In particular, fine-grained soils are susceptible to shrinkage and the resulting volume change. Shrinkage can cause cracking of soils that can adversely impact the engineering properties and behavior of the soils. As a result, the integrity of structures and facilities associated with these soils may be threatened. The adverse effects include decreased strength of the cracked soils and increased flow through the soils. The objective of this research was to evaluate the in situ characteristics of compacted soils and develop innovative methods to evaluate service performance (drying and cracking) of compacted and in situ clayey soils. This is achieved using nondestructive testing techniques and simulation of these techniques to make reliable predictions of the performance of these materials. Image analysis was used as an effective tool to determine the strains in a cracking surface; ultrasonic testing was used to determine water content-small strain elastic property variation during drying and for predicting crack depth in the laboratory. Results indicate that Finite Element Modelling can be effective tool for predicting potential for crack propagation.