[08/24] Professor David Toll, IHRR Co-Director, is co-author of “Deterioration of a compacted soil due to suction loss and desiccation cracking” published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal.
A new article has been published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal by Dr Ashutosh Kumar (Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, and former IHRR Global Fellow), Dr Arash Azizi (Glasgow University, formerly Engineering, Durham University) and Professor David Toll (Co-Director of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience (IHRR), Durham University).
The paper is an output from the EPSRC-funded Transport Africa project. It presents the results of laboratory testing of a clayey soil taken from beneath a road in Tanzania. The results revealed a reduction in shear strength and stiffness when subjected to hydraulic cycles (wetting and drying). Suction variations alone could not account for the observed changes in shear strength, implying that the development of desiccation cracks contributed to reduced strength and stiffness.
The results showed that the degradation effect of crack development on the shear strength and elastic modulus of the soil during hydraulic cycles could be modelled using a microstructural-based approach. This allowed the increase in the large pores resulting from crack development to be accounted for and hence the successive reductions in shear strength and stiffness with drying-wetting cycles. These deterioration effects need to be considered for design of geotechnical infrastructure to ensure stability, and resilience of infrastructure over time. The article relates to IHRR’s research in climate resilience.
Kumar, A., Azizi, A., Toll, D.G. (2024) Deterioration of a compacted soil due to suction loss and desiccation cracking, Canadian Geotechnical Journal.
Photo credit: Kumar, A 2024
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