Shrinkage Induced Pressure Measurement to Address Desiccation Cracking in Expansive Soils

摘要

High plasticity clays exhibit extensive volume change behavior when subjected to seasonal moisture fluctuations. Shrinkage induced pressure evolved during the drying process could result in moderate to severe damage to light infrastructures. Tensile strength and stress evolved during drying process will result in soil cracks when the later exceeds the former. A novel method is introduced in this research to effectively identify and study Shrinkage Induced Pressure (SIP) of expansive clays. In this study, highly expansive Colorado soil is subjected to drying in a temperature controlled environment. A data acquisition system capable of continuously recording shrinkage induced pressure is utilized. The rate of soil drying, initial soil moisture and sensor capacity are some of the variables addressed in this study. A comparison of SIP test results with Indirect Tensile Strength (IDT) results was conducted in order to validate the test results.