In a desiccation process of clay soils, induced by evaporation, the lost of the fluid phase reaches to a certain suction stresses. The soil shrinks. If the tensile strength of the soil reaches, cracks will happen. This tensile failure of unsaturated compacted cohesive soils, caused by changes of hydraulic and mechanical coupled properties, can influence the stability and durability of earthwork and structure engineering applications, such as dams.
In the master thesis of Yang Yang, an analyze of the crack induced by desiccation process of surface evaporation on unsaturated compacted clay samples is done. The shrinkage behaviour is observed by Particle Velocimetry Method (PIV-Method) and the changes of the geometrical parameters are analysed with binary method. The crack initiation and duration are correlated with water contents and soil suction parameters.
First results of this study are presented with video and poster.