A Review of Cracking Behavior and Mechanism in Clayey Soils Related to Desiccation

Table 1

Resume of reviewed experimental works on desiccation cracks in soils.

Test type	Reference	Material	Investigated parameters	Digital imaging method
Rectangular tests	Corte and Higashi [19]	Bloomington soil	Desiccation experiments with different support materials, densities, thicknesses of soil samples, and influences of gravel inclusions
	Lau [20]	Indian Head till and Regina clay	Crack spacing, soil suction, shrinkage strain and predicted crack depth
	Miller et al. [44]	Landfill clays	Under drying-wetting cycles, the influence of crack intensity
	Yesiller et al. [45]	Three compacted clays	Under drying-wetting cycles, the effect of crack intensity
	Lakshmikantha et al. [46]	Silty clay	Specimen dimensions, crack ratio
	Wei et al. [25]	Two mixtures of kaolinite and montmorillonite	Drying tests with different supports, local strains and displacements	✓
	Zhang. et al. [26]	Block clays	Influence of NaCl content on desiccation	✓
	Cordero et al. [47]	11 sand-kaolinite mixtures	The onset of crack initiation and the subsequent evolution in horizontal strains	✓
Circular tests	Kindle [8]	Mud	Drying rate, influence of salinity, effect of structure of mud on cracks behavior
	Groisman and Kaplan [48]	Coffee-water mixtures	Influence of layer thickness and boundary limitations
	Toramaru and Matsumoto [49]	Starch-water mixture	Drying rate, cracking joint formation
	Tang et al. [6]	Xiashu clayey soil	Water evaporation rate, volumetric shrinkage, crack evolution	✓
	Costa et al. [50]	Starch/clay/fine sand	Thickness of samples, desiccation rate, crack formation, flaw distribution, and fracture energy
	Li et al. [24]	Residual clayey soil	Effect of vegetation roots on the preferential flow	✓
	Wang et al. [14]	Clayey soil	Evolution of crack patterns and surface strain analysis	✓
Long mould tests	Nahlawi and Kodikara [51]	Werribee clay	Variation of water content, development of crack patterns, drying rate, crack spacing, and depth
	Péron [21]	Bioley silt and rock powder	Shrinkage strain, soil-water characteristics
	Tang [23]	Clayey soils of low plasticity	Evolution of cracks and desiccation cracking mechanism
Field experiments of clay cracking	Longwell [9]	Lacustrine clay	Mud curling phenomenon, different types of crack patterns
	Kong [16]	Clayey soil in Chengdu	Morphology of cracks
	Konard and Ayad [38]	Saint Alban clay	Cracking patterns in soft clay
	Philip et al. [52]	Saint Alban clay	Field tests on landfill liners