Damage induced by cracks in soil constitutes a major challenge in geoenvironmental engineering. The fundamental mechanisms of the phenomenon of cracking during drying, and the ways to control or avoid it, are still elusive. This paper addresses the special role of boundary constraints and induced tensile stresses in crack initiation during drying. For this purpose, two kinds of experimental tests were carried out on a sample of fine-grained soil under controlled conditions: free desiccation tests and constrained desiccation tests. Measurements of strains, gravimetric water content and suction allow the drawing of some conclusions about the influence and the evolution of these tensile stresses during drying.
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