Abstract
Cracks in drying soils have detrimental effects on the integrity of geotechnical structures. The evaporation rate is recognized to play an important role in fracture generation, having a direct impact on the amount of cracks produced. This investigation examined the drying behaviour of a clay with different initial water contents and under different evaporative conditions. Small-scale evaporation experiments were carried out using a river clay and commercially available suction-measuring equipment. The results showed that the initial conditions have great influence on the drying performance of a soil, which can be partly attributed to the influence of the surface texture and the pore structure. It was observed that under certain circumstances, the evaporation of a soil surface can be higher than that of open water. The different evaporation rates had a marked effect on the water distributions with depth within the soil. The evaporation rate also produced a dynamic response of the soil-water retention curve.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 437-445 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Canadian Geotechnical Journal |
Volume | 55 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Keywords
- Clay desiccation
- Drying rate
- Evaporation test
- Soil drying
- Suction