Desiccation cracking of soil layers
Jayantha Kodikara, S. Lee Barbour, D. G. Fredlund
Abstract
The current paper presents a brief review of the available and emerging theories of desiccation cracking of clay soils, and an analysis of some laboratory tests undertaken on desiccation of relatively thin soil layers. The laboratory test data analysed included those reported by Corte and Higashi (1960) and Lau (1987). The experiments were conducted to study the effects of soil thickness, initial soil density, base adhesion and desiccation rate. The thicknesses of soil layers were in the range 3 mm to 60 mm. The results of the experiments indicated that cracking occurred predominantly in orthogonal patterns although non-orthogonal (hexagonal) patterns occurred in some instances. The results also indicated that the initial cracking water content decreases as the desiccation rate increases. The analysis of results indicated that cells created by cracking followed a log-normal distribution, and the mean cell area was a function of soil thickness, base adhesion, and initial soil density, but was not strongly related to the desiccation rate.