Peridynamic modelling of desiccation induced cracking of cohesive soils

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Abstract

Desiccation of cohesive soils due to the loss of moisture is a geo-environmental challenge and it is increasingly
becoming a wide spread problem due to climate changes. The understanding of desiccation in clay soils and how it
leads to cracking has substantially been improved during the last 20 years through experimental investigations and
theoretical developments. However, very limited predictive models for the initiation and propagation of cracks during
clay desiccation have been presented in the literature. The slow progress in this field is essentially due to the
limitations of the local (differential) formulations, solved by classical numerical methods. We will present a non-local
(peridynamic) formulation of clay desiccation and fracture propagation, which couples weakly the moisture flow and
the mechanical deformation and allows for the emergence and evolution of discontinuities. This model is
incorporated into a multi-physics computational implementation of peridynamics (Pyramid). Two series of validation
exercises by comparing the model predictions with experimental data with very different setups and consequently
experimental outcomes will be presented. The validations presented will include the shrinkage and cracking of a soil
sample in a ring test and desiccation-induced cracking of a long clay sample. It will be shown that the model
captures accurately the experimentally observed behaviour for crack initiation to occur at a narrow water content
range. The simulation results, including crack initiation and number of generated cracks, correlate well with the
experimental observations, lending strong support for the predictive capabilities of the model and its computational
implementation in the Pyramid code.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication16th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics
Publication statusPublished - 25 Jul 2021

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