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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 8, Issue 10 (Suppl)
J Earth Sci Clim Change, an open access
ISSN: 2157-7617
Climate Change 2017
October 19-21, 2017
CLIMATE CHANGE
October 19-21, 2017 | Rome, Italy
4
th
World Conference on
Development of drying crack networks in slurries with different thicknesses
Yue Zhang
and
Wm Ye
Tongji University, China
Statement of the Problem:
As one of the dominant climate-related hazardsall over the world, drought occurs more frequently
and widely in recent years.Especially in the field of geotechnical engineering, such extreme condition could trigger intense
shrinkage cracking of soils,leading toirrecoverable damageforbothmodern infrastructures and ancient earthen heritages. For
a drying soil, previous researchers mainly focused onfinal morphology of crack pattern influenced byambient temperature,
RH and mineral types etc.However,the wholeprocess of crack network development is far less investigated,particularly in a
quantitative way.
Material&Methodology:
Slurrieswithdifferent initial thicknesses (2, 5, 10and15mm)werepreparedincircular containers, from
low-plastic silty clay with water content 45%.Specimens were exposed to air drying in a laboratory undercontrolledtemperature
20±1oC. During desiccation, the evolving crack networks were recorded regularly using a digital camera and further analyzed
resorting to image processing technique. Three geometric parameters, i.e. CIF(crack intensity factor), total crack length (L) and
average crack width (W), were quantified.
Findings:
As water content dropped below the liquid limit30%, cracks started to initiate on soil surface. Both L andW increased
gradually in the following stage, however, the evolution trend was different among specimens.For 15mm slurry,Lstopped
increasing at air-entry water content (22%),whileWkept growing until shrinkage limit (16%) was
reached.Incomparison,2mm
slurry was dominated by elongationof cracks, accompanied by only slight
widening.Inaddition, CIF increased from 5.26%
to 10.32% as thickness increased. Crack patterncut extensively by small and narrow cracks transformed gradually into less
fragmented one.
Conclusion & Significance:
Thicknesshad a great impact onboth development and final morphology of drying cracking
networks. This providessome useful information for understanding the mechanisms in practical issues.
ye_tju@tongji.edu.cnYue Zhang et al., J Earth Sci Clim Change 2017, 8:10(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7617-C1-036