Soil-atmosphere interaction: cracking of a compacted soil under the effect of a thermo-hydric stress

Abstract

Reusing excavated material in geotechnical engineering reduces the carbon impact of a project. Such materials are usually placed in a compacted state in order to achieve the mechanical and hydric characteristics required to guarantee the safety of the structures. A good geotechnical knowledge of the materials is therefore necessary as well as a good anticipation of their behaviour over time. Indeed, in some situations, as in the case of waste storage, a low hydraulic conductivity is required. The use of crushed rocks rich in clays (argillite), possibly improved by adding bentonite, could be interesting. However, this addition, beneficial in terms of hydraulic conductivity, could be damaging from a mechanical point of view by the development of cracks at the interface atmosphere-compacted soil. For this purpose, samples compacted at the normal Proctor optimum are exposed to a relative humidity of 46% and a temperature of 22.5°C. The thickness, mass and surface condition (cracking) were monitored during the drying process, and measurements were taken in the thickness of the specimen after 29 hours of exposure. The results make it possible to compare the two materials at the same compaction energy. The argillite sample shows a significant shrinkage but no cracks at this scale. On the different hand, with the addition of bentonite, a significant cracking was observed and analysed. These results provide information on the hydromechanical behaviour of unsaturated fine soils at the atmosphere-compacted soil interface.