Effect of Alkali Pollutant in Influencing Crack Propagation in Soils

Shrinkage, deformation, and cracking will occur under extreme climate conditions such as drought, due to the accumulation of salt inside the soil during the evaporation of water on the surface of the soil. In this study, the image processing method was used to quantitatively analyze the dehydration cracking process of clay polluted by alkaline pollutant sodium carbonate on the basis of experiments. The mechanism of the effect of sodium carbonate concentration on the shrinkage cracks of clay was discussed through the analysis and comparison of different concentrations of sodium carbonate samples. The results showed that the water loss and shrinkage cracks of alkaline contaminant clay were developed in different stages. Firstly, first-level cracks developed diagonally or parallel to the edge of the container, and then second-level cracks developed along the main cracks with an angle of close to 90 degrees. Most of the third-level or higher-level cracks were approximately perpendicular to the second-level cracks or the edge of the container and developed in parallel. In the cracking stage, the water loss ratio of the sample had a good positive correlation with the surface crack ratio. The slope of the fitted curve increased with the increase of the sodium carbonate concentration. With the increase of sodium carbonate concentration, the water loss ratio and the width of first-level cracks of clayey soil decreased, and the total length and the number of cracks increased, while the surface cracking ratio increased first and then decreased.