Numerical simulation of crack formation process in clays during drying and wetting

Abstract

Clays generally crack upon drying and the cracks gradually close up because of expansion of the clays induced by rainfall infiltration. Based on the concept of air drainage ratio, we introduce an improved simplified consolidation theory for unsaturated soils and apply it to solve the crack formation problem. We present initial conditions, special consideration, and finite-element (FEM) formulations for simulation of cracks under axisymmetric conditions. Similar to finding solutions for sand-well consolidation problems, a prism of clays surrounded by polygonal distributed cracks is simplified as a cylinder. Numerical simulations using the FEM formulations are performed on the processes of crack occurrence, propagation, and closure during drying and wetting. To investigate the influence of air drainage ratio distribution, three different schemes are adopted for computation. It is found that the behaviour of cracks in clays during drying and wetting can be well represented using the approach proposed in the paper. The simplified consolidation theory used in the paper for unsaturated soils is more suitable for crack analysis than the general consolidation theory currently applied.

Keywords:

• Crack formation
• Crack propagation
• Crack closure
• Drying and wetting
• Numerical simulation
• Consolidation
• Clay