Soil cracking modelling using the mesh-free SPH method

TL;DR

This paper extends the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to simulate desiccation-induced soil cracking, providing a new computational tool for predicting crack patterns and their effects in geotechnical engineering.

Contribution

It introduces the first application of SPH to model shrinkage-induced soil cracking, analyzing the impact of soil thickness on crack formation.

Findings

SPH effectively simulates soil crack formation.

Soil thickness influences cracking patterns.

SPH shows promise for geotechnical applications.

Abstract

The presence of desiccation cracks in soils can significantly alter their mechanical and hydrological properties. In many circumstances, desiccation cracking in soils can cause significant damage to earthen or soil supported structures. For example, desiccation cracks can act as the preference path way for water flow, which can facilitate seepage flow causing internal erosion inside earth structures. Desiccation cracks can also trigger slope failures and landslides. Therefore, developing a computational procedure to predict desiccation cracking behaviour in soils is vital for dealing with key issues relevant to a range of applications in geotechnical and geo-environment engineering. In this paper, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method will be extended for the first time to simulate shrinkage-induced soil cracking. The main objective of this work is to examine the performance of the proposed numerical approach in simulating the strong discontinuity in material behaviour and to learn about the crack formation in soils, looking at the effects of soil thickness on the cracking patterns. Results show that the SPH is a promising numerical approach for simulating crack formation in soils