Desiccation fissuring induced failure mechanisms for clay levees

摘要

Desiccation fissuring is a phenomenon which got very little attention in the scientific literatureuntil very recently. Nevertheless,many earth levees in Europe,USA and Asia are subject to strong fissuringfor prolonged periods of time. Experimental evidence suggests that desiccation fissuring could be responsibleof breach initiation in many cases. In this paper,firstly experimental data obtained from field investigationsare reported,secondly small scale laboratory tests are described and thirdly a failure mechanism leading tobreach initiation is postulated according to the gathered observational evidence. Field investigation consistedof walk-over surveys,trial trench excavations,measurements of suction profiles and double ring infiltrometertests whereas small scale tests were ad hoc set up in the laboratory in order to measure the tendency of the leveematerial to crack.