Vol.34 No.

3 2020 Special: 2020 TKK Awards

TKK Young Scientist Award in Earth Sciences

Are Soil Desiccation Cracks

Prof. TANG Chaosheng,

T
he 2020 TKK Young Scientist Award in Earth desiccation cracks appeared in more than 1,200
Sciences went to Prof. TANG Chaosheng for reservoir dams in Chongqing, China, because of an
his important contributions to drought-related extreme drought. A subsequent rainfall threatened the
engineering geology, particularly in developing an stability of several dams. In other cases, desiccation
artificial climate simulation system that has been used to cracks can greatly reduce the stability of natural slopes
study the behaviors of drought-induced soil desiccation or reduce the bearing capacity of foundations due to the
cracking. drawdown of groundwater.
The formation of desiccation cracks on soil surface The influence of drought on engineering geology has
due to the loss of water is a common scene in times been long underestimated, and can be easily overlooked
of drought. These drought-induced cracks can break because it appears to be subtler compared with other
up the integrity of the soil mass and impact all sorts formidable extreme climate events, such as storms and
of constructions built on or in the ground, including earthquakes. However, when you take a deep look into
houses, roads, railways, dams, liners and covers for geological disasters, you can usually spot the liability
landfill, and even barriers for nuclear waste isolation, linked to drought-induced desiccation cracking.
because desiccation cracks greatly reduce the soil’s Considering the high frequency of droughts in
strength, as well as increase the hydraulic conductivity China, as well as its broad influence in other parts of
(the rate and the velocity at which water can get in or the world, there is an urgent need to study behaviors
out) of a soil mass. of soil desiccation cracking and find ways to prevent
As a result, the geotechnical aspects of construction these cracks from triggering disasters upon the presence
can be affected directly or indirectly by the presence of other extreme climatic events, such as storms or
of cracks in a soil mass. For example, in 2007, deep earthquakes.

Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 161

TANG’s study on soil desiccation cracking started primary cracks. So, the cracks mostly intersect at right
around twenty years ago, when, one day, his supervisor angles, like the letter ‘T’, and the final crack pattern is
came to him with a question – Are the soil cracks mostly dominated by square shapes.
in square shape, or hexagon? “After obtaining these primary results, we didn’t
“Since then, I embarked on the road of ‘mud- rush to the conclusion; instead, we continued with
playing’, and there is no turning back,” recalled TANG our studies,” recalled TANG. “Then we found that
in a public talk after receiving the TKK Young Scientist the desiccation cracking patterns can be affected by
Award. wetting-drying cycles. After subjecting these soil samples
Through years of effort, TANG’s group developed to cycles of wetting-drying condition, we found that the
an artificial climate simulation system, which can be intersecting angles of the cracks become dominantly
tuned to create precise experimental conditions. Based 120°, like the letter ‘Y’, and the square clods of the crack
on this system, they developed a mature methodology to patterns transformed mostly into hexagonal ones, just
investigate the many aspects of soil behavior, including like what we usually see in the field in times of drought.”
water evaporation, volume shrinkage, crack initiation So, TANG was then able to answer the question “are
and propagation, as well as the involved coupling soil cracks mostly in square shape, or hexagon?” This
process. Moreover, they equipped this system with is, however, not the end of this journey. His curiosity led
powerful technologies of image processing, which can him to ask another question – why it was like that and
be used to monitor the dynamic process of desiccation how to predict?
cracking, as well as automatically quantify crack “Crack formation and evolution are, in nature, the
patterns and run strain field analyses on the soil surface. consequences of tensile stress release,” says Prof. TANG.
Using this self-made system, TANG and his “By running full-field strain analyses of the soil surface,
coworkers have made numerous interesting discoveries. we found that the observed cracking was restricted
For example, they found that the surface cracks start mostly to high stretching domains which are usually
to appear in the early stage of drying when the soil is related to microstructure defects. We are now able to
still fully-saturated with water, contradicting common predict the starting locations of early cracks, as well as
sense that cracking forms on the soil surface after drying how they would evolve, such as where they will take
out. They also found that the newly formed sub-cracks turns and intersect with each other.”
are usually perpendicular to the previously formed They also reported that, as desiccation proceeds,

Left: cycles of wetting-drying condition transform the soil desiccation patterns, from mostly square shape to mostly hexagon. Right: intersecting
angles of the soil desiccation cracks found in the field are dominantly 120°. (Image by TANG’s lab)

162 Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

however, the surface strain field ceases to provide various soil improvement techniques, such as fiber
useful information for predicting crack locations. reinforcement, chemical stabilization and bio-mediation,
They reckoned that although drying begins from the to increase soil’s tensile strength, which thereby enhance
exposed material surfaces, late-generation cracks the crack resistance in times of drought. They also
can initiate in the subsurface, propagate upward and developed a series of techniques, including distributed
express themselves subsequently at the surface. Their optical fiber sensing, X-ray computed tomography,
experimental results further validated that the coupled electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), machine
effects of substrate conduct conditions and soil layer learning and optical imaging, to monitor/characterize
thickness play a key role in governing the soil cracking soil deformation and desiccation cracking process. Their
behavior in the subsurface. studies on the drought-related engineering geology
Notably, they also developed a powerful Crack are of great theoretical and practical significance for
Image Analysis System (CIAS) to automatically quantify improving the decision-making ability to deal with
crack patterns, which have been widely applied by extreme drought climate events and enhance the ability
many other research groups worldwide. of disaster prevention and mitigation.
Apart from their impressive work on the behaviors L ast not least, drought-related studies on
of soil desiccation cracking, TANG’s group also proposed atmosphere-soil interaction provide insights to other
a model for atmosphere-soil interaction, which related subjects, such as agriculture and ecology.
illustrates the relationship between many aspects of soil Besides, the desiccation crack patterns preserved from
behavior and the soil’s engineering properties in times ancient time may hold valuable information to the
of catastrophic droughts. Moreover, they developed paleoclimate that, to some extent, forged these cracks.

Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 163