Fracture propagation characteristics of pre-cracked red clay in roadbed filling under three-point bending

Abstract

Red clay was a special roadbed filling soil that was easy to expand and shrink because of the characteristics of high liquid limit and high porosity, leading to the appearance of a large number of cracks. In order to understand the cracking mechanism and nonlinear fracture failure process of red clay, the fracture toughness and crack sensitivity of red clay with different saturation, compaction and gravel content were analyzed by three-point bending cracking experiment and Image processing technology, and then the cohesive crack model was established to describe the fracture toughness. The results showed that the cracking process of red clay could be divided into three stages: crack incubation period, crack initiation and propagation period and visible cracks appearance stage. There was a conic function relationship between fracture toughness and saturation and a positive correlation between fracture toughness and compactness. The influence of gravel content on the final fracture path of red clay was the most significant, while the effects of saturation and compaction could be ignored. In addition, the fracture toughness converted from the cohesive crack model was basically as the same as the measured. This work provided a basis for theoretical analysis and numerical calculation for the fracture toughness of red clay under three-point bending.