A Study of the Impact of Desiccation Cracking of Soils on Performance of a Stiffened Slab Footing on Expansive Soils

摘要

Cracking in expansive soils has a significant influence on ground movement prediction and engineering design of foundation in expansive soils. In this paper, a numerical model is developed for analysing a moisture flow-expansive soil-footing interaction problem. The numerical model is used to study the effects of desiccation cracking of soil on the behaviour of a stiffened slab footing. The result has shown that considering lateral shrinkage and desiccation cracking of the soil not only increases the differential deflection of the slab, but also alters the patterns of the slab movements.