Knowledge of the stress-strain relationship of the compacted soils in tension is of importance for understanding of cracking that occurs in earth structures, in particular embankment dams and landfill barriers. Understanding the correlation between tensile properties and traditional soil parameters and soil suction is essential in identifying problems associated with desiccation induced cracking. A series of extensive laboratory experiments were performed on three different soils from existing embankment dams. This thesis concentrated on the investigation of tensile strength in relation to the type of soil, compaction water content, compaction density ratio, rate of loading, soil suction, moisture retention characteristics and the effect of drying and wetting. Stress-strain behaviour and tensile properties indicated a dependence on soil type and compaction criteria. The plasticity index, clay content and type of mineral has shown a significant influence on tensile strength. Compaction dry of optimum resulted in an increase in strength. Compaction wet of optimum showed a decrease in strength and small increase in strain at failure. Higher compaction effort resulted in higher tensile strength, tensile stiffness and brittle stress-strain behaviour. Difference in loading rate revealed response time for initial tensile deformation as well as sustainable duration up to failure point. The effect of soil suction plays an important role in drying during which specimens exhibited a considerable strength increase. The magnitude of strength increase may have been contributed by a combination of suction, air entry value and compaction density. The effect of wetting could cause decreasing in suction and thus a reduction in strength. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the desiccation-induced may not necessarily occur due to an associated increase in tensile strength. However, an increase in tensile strength is likely to be accompanied by an increase in shrinkage. Therefore, desiccation-induced cracking is related to the interaction between moisture loss, change in soil suction, tensile stress and shrinkage.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/186960 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Win, San San, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright San San Win, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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