ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the discussion of shrinkage behavior of soil as it relates to the cracking pattern. Soil cracking mechanisms can be explained by the following principles: the development of surface cracks, the linear elastic fracture mechanics and the particle-energy-field theory. Soil cracking mechanisms are related to the moisture content in some cases, the flow directions or paths are also related to the cracking patterns. Under such condition, there are three basic mechanisms of soil cracking and fractures: drying soil, saturated soil, and contaminated soil. Fracture load testing and tensile strength testing are the quantitative measurements of cracking-fracture behavior of soil. Soil cracking pattern tests are a qualitative indicator property, which should be correlated with other soil performance measures in order to have a significant meaning. These performance tests include tensile strength, fracture loading, clay mineral structure analysis, and pore fluid chemistry analysis.
