Experimental and Numerical modelling of desiccation of clayey soils

Abstract The desiccation of clayey soils is widespread in nature and it significantly affects the mechanical behavior of the soil, which in practice can compromise the sustainability of geotechnical structures. The desiccation of clayey soils should first be studied, as a basis for recherche the mechanism of cracking. In current research, the combined numerical simulation and experiments research were conducted for investigating the desiccation of clayey soils. The desiccation experiments of fully saturated slurry and pre-consolidation clayey soils are analyzed and simulated. The material properties are first introduced. Then, the experiments are introduced and analyzed, the numerical model parameters are identified. The constitutive model of clayey soils is established and the numerical simulation of the desiccation is realized by using finite element method, the approach permitted to estimate how, from the fully saturated state to the completely dry state, both deformations, suction and the stresses developed in the sample. Finally, the proposed numerical approach is validated by reproducing the desiccation experiments. The numerical results show that the numerical simulations are in good agreements with the experimental observations. A deeper understanding of the formation mechanism of desiccation of clayey soils is obtained by using a combination of numerical simulation and experiments.