CLAY-04172; No of Pages 10

Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

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Applied Clay Science

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Research paper

A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced

expansive clay
Uma Chaduvula a, B.V.S. Viswanadham b,⁎, Jayantha Kodikara c
a
IITB-Monash Research Academy, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076, India
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076, India
c
Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Expansive clays swell in presence of the water and shrink in its absence, thereby producing desiccation cracks
Received 17 April 2016 which significantly alter its mechanical and hydraulic performance. In this study, the improvement in the
Received in revised form 23 November 2016 crack resistance of locally available expansive clay by polyester fiber reinforcement was investigated. Laboratory
Accepted 6 February 2017
tests were conducted to quantitatively evaluate the effect of fiber content and fiber length on desiccation cracking
Available online xxxx
of fiber reinforced clay. The alkaline stability of the polyester fibers was tested by exposing the fibers to harsh al-
Keywords:
kaline environment and was found to be suitable for the soil under consideration in barrier systems. A digital
Expansive clay image acquisition system was employed to capture the evolution and propagation of cracks in the soil specimen
Fibers subjected to desiccation. The results demonstrate a significant influence of fiber reinforcement on the cracking
Desiccation crack behavior of expansive clay at the onset of desiccation. The average crack opening width, the spacing of cracks
Digital image analysis and the average cell area were measured and compared with those of unreinforced specimen. In fiber reinforced
Fiber reinforcement clay, a noticeable reduction in the total cracked area, which is due to the presence of fibers, has been observed.
The crack intensity factor (ratio of the area of the cracks to the total specimen area), the average width, the spac-
ing of cracks and the cell area decreased with fiber inclusion, thereby increasing the relative integrity of the spec-
imen relatively. The average shrinkage strain for unreinforced and fiber-reinforced soil specimen was also
determined. Fiber reinforcement was found to be effective in restraining desiccation cracking except when longer
fibers were used.
© 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction
Expansive clay is abundant over a 0.3 million m2 area in India, and
covers central India and the Deccan Plateau. These are derived from
the basaltic traps, the ferruginous gneisses, and the schists of central
and south-central India. The substantial presence of the montmorillon-
ite mineral imparts high shrink-swell potentials (Chen, 1988). Clay-rich
soils having low hydraulic conductivity are used in waste containment
systems like landfill liners and covers. Since expansive clays have a
high clay content and low hydraulic conductivity (in the order of
1 × 10−9 m/s) they can potentially be used as an impervious barrier ma-
terial in landfill lining systems. However, due to their shrink-swell na-
ture, they have a tendency of severe desiccation cracking leading to
distress in impervious barriers of landfill lining systems.
Desiccation cracking alters the long-term sealing effect of impervi-
ous barrier layers in landfill lining systems to generate leachate, which
may eventually contaminate the soil and groundwater (Miller et al.,
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: uma.chaduvula@iitb.ac.in (U. Chaduvula), viswam@civil.iitb.ac.in
(B.V.S. Viswanadham), jayantha.kodikara@monash.edu (J. Kodikara).
1998; Witt and Zeh, 2005). Albrecht and Benson (2001) showed that
the hydraulic conductivity of the clay layer increases as much as by an
order of three due to cracking, because the cracks act as drainage
paths for water infiltration. Various methods such as surface moisture
barriers (Albright et al., 2004) and chemical stabilization have been
attempted by several researchers in the past to mitigate desiccation
cracking of clay barriers. Chemical stabilization of the soil by using addi-
tives such as lime, cement and sand reduced the shrinkage potential of
the soil significantly (Leung and Vipulanandan, 1995; Omidi et al.,
1996). The shrinkage behavior reduced in these cases, but in some
cases, an increase in hydraulic conductivity of soil was observed due
to aggregation of clay particles. Other methods of reducing desiccation
cracking involve compaction control, surcharge loading and thermal
methods (Nelson and Miller, 1992; Steinberg, 1998).
Several researchers have shown that the inclusion of natural or syn-
thetic fibers in soil increases its bearing capacity and shear strength.
Original use of the fiber reinforcement involved the natural use of
plant roots or the use of available fibers such as sisal, straw, coconut
fiber, coir and the like in order to increase the shear strength and stabil-
ity of slopes (Gray, 1978; Wu et al., 1988). The main advantage of dis-
crete reinforcement of soil with fibers over conventional geosynthetic

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
0169-1317/© 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
2 U. Chaduvula et al. / Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

sheet reinforcement is the absence of a single potential plane of failure

(Maher and Gray, 1990). Fiber reinforcement helps in preventing tensile
crack formation, and in reducing the swelling potential, the liquefaction
potential, the thermal conductivity and the brittle behavior of the mate-
rial (Hejazi et al., 2012; Viswanadham et al., 2010). Viswanadham et al.
(2009) studied the effect of discrete geofiber reinforcement on the im-
provement in the swelling behavior of a locally available expansive
soil. It was found that the swelling potential and swelling pressure sig-
nificantly reduced due to the presence of the fibers. Viswanadham et
al. (2011) and Divya et al. (2014) reported a significant increase in
delay in cracking of fiber reinforced soil with an increase in fiber content
due to the ductile behavior.
Al-Wahab and El-Kedrah (1995) reported a reduction of 25%–45% in
desiccation crack index (ratio of area of cracks to the total surface area)
due to fiber reinforcement of compacted clay. The amount of shrink-
swell was reduced by 30%–35%. Ziegler et al. (1998); Miller and Rifai
(2004) and Harianto et al. (2008) also observed that fiber inclusion re- Fig. 1. Particle size distribution of soil used in the study.
duces the desiccation cracking of the soil, along with an improvement in
the mechanical performance of the soil.
Recently, Phanikumar and Shankar (2016) investigated the hydrau- considered to give reliable and accurate results for expansive clays
lic conductivity of fly-ash stabilized expansive clay as a liner material, (Uday and Singh, 2013). The particle size distribution of the soil is pre-
and reported that the hydraulic conductivity decreased with increase sented in Fig. 1. Various percentage fractions such as gravel (N 4.75–b
in fly ash content for different permeating fluids. Sabat and Nayak 19 mm), sand (N0.075–b2 mm), silt (N0.002–b0.075 mm) and clay
(2015) found out that 25% fly ash-calcium carbide residue is optimum (b0.002 mm) were determined according to ASTM D 422-63 (1994).
for expansive clay to be used as a liner material. However, much less at- The Atterberg limits were determined according to ASTM D 4318-93
tention has been paid to modification of expansive clay with fiber rein- (1994) and ASTM D 427-93 (1994) and the soil was classified as Clay
forcement for application as a clay barrier. In addition, the past work did of High Plasticity, CH, according to the Unified Soil Classification System
not pay sufficient attention to the distribution of fibers within the clay (USCS).
mass. Even distribution of fibers within the clay mass is paramount in
attaining effective fiber reinforcement for improvement in desirable en- 2.1.2. Mineralogical properties
gineering properties of soil. Hence, the primary objective of this work is X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra yielded the mineralogical composi-
to assess the potential of polyester fibers in restraining desiccation tion, which is reported in Table 2. The presence of the mineral montmo-
cracking of expansive soils. Secondly, the study aims at evaluating the rillonite (49.3%) signifies the expansive nature of the soil under
effect of fiber content and fiber length on the distribution of fibers in consideration (Viswanadham et al., 2009).
soil mass during mixing, and its effect on desiccation cracking.
2.1.3. Chemical properties
2. Materials and methods The chemical composition of the clay was determined by X-ray fluo-
rescence (XRF) and is reported in Table 2.
2.1. Expansive clay
2.2. Polyester fibers
The expansive clay was collected from a construction site at a depth
of about 1.5 m below the typical root zone, near the city of Nanded in The polyester fibers that had a special trilobal cross section with an
Maharashtra, India. The clay was characterized for its physical, mineral- effective diameter of 40 μm were used as shown in Fig. 2a. The amount
ogical, chemical and geotechnical properties, as discussed below. of adhesion force and fiber sliding resistance between the fiber and the
soil is proportional to the contact surface area and the fiber surface
2.1.1. Physical properties roughness (Tagnit-Hamou et al., 2005; Frost and Han, 1999). The irreg-
The physical properties of the clay are reported in Table 1. The spe- ular trilobal shape offers better surface roughness than the conventional
cific gravity, Gs, of the clay was determined using Helium Gas Pycnom- circular cross section.
eter (Pycnomatic ATC), according to ASTM D 5550 (2006) because it is The mechanical properties of a single filament of polyester fiber (M/
s. Pragati Enterprise, India) was determined according to ASTM D 1577-
07 (2012) and ASTM D 3822 (2014) by using specialized single fiber
Table 1
Physical properties of soil used in the study. tensile test equipment (Textechno Fafegraph ME, Germany) at the
Bombay Textile Research Association (BTRA), Mumbai, India, as report-
Soil properties Value
ed in Table 3. The breaking force-strain curve of a single fiber filament is
Specific gravity 2.58 presented in Fig. 2b. Three consecutive tensile tests were performed on
Size fraction single fiber filament extracted from the polyester fiber yarn. The linear
Gravel (%) 1
Sand (%) 5
Silty (%) 34 Table 2
Clay (%) 60 Mineralogical and chemical composition of soil used in the study.
Atterberg limits
Liquid limit (%) 87 Mineralogical Montmorillonite Anorthite Calcite Quartz Magnetite
Plastic limit (%) 38 composition (%)
Shrinkage limit (%) 20 49.3 41 5 4.3 0.4
Free swell index (%) 120
Soil classification CH Chemical SiO2 Al2O3 CaO MgO
composition (%)
Note: CH, high plasticity clay; According to USCS (Unified Soil
47.3 12.5 6.3 8.3
Classification System).

Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
 U. Chaduvula et al. / Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 3

Table 4
Properties of untreated and alkali treated polyester fiber used in the study.

Status of polyester fiber Linear density (tex) Breaking force (mN) Strain (%)

Untreated 0.331 112.6 45.18

Alkali treated 0.321 107.6 44.46

three days at a temperature of 60 °C. The fibers showed very good alka-
line stability, as reported in Table 4. No significant strength degradation
of fibers was observed even after exposure to a harsh alkaline environ-
ment. However, pH = 13 may be too severe to be encountered in con-
ventional geotechnical engineering application.

2.3. Mixing method

2.3.1. Specimen preparation

Fig. 2. (a) SEM photomicrograph of the polyester fiber used in the study. (b) Typical force-
strain curve of the polyester fiber used in the study.
density of a fiber is measured as the mass (in grams) of 1000 m of fila-
ment of fiber (SI unit: tex). The mechanical strength of a fiber is given by
tenacity, which is defined as the breaking force divided by the linear
density of the fiber (SI unit: mN/tex).
The pH of the clay was found to be 8, using a pH meter (Toshcon In-
dustries, India). It indicates that the clay is slightly alkaline in nature.
Generally, barrier systems are exposed to aggressive underground envi-
ronmental conditions. Therefore, fibers must have resistance to various
forms of environmental degradations. Polyester fibers lose their
strength in harsh alkaline conditions due to hydrolysis that causes etch-
ing on the surface of the fiber (Netravali et al., 1993). The polyester fi-
bers were tested for their mechanical strength before and after
immersion in Calcium Hydroxide, Ca(OH)2 solution (pH = 13) for
Researchers have adopted different methods for specimen prepara-
tion according to the soil type. Tang et al. (2012) and Freilich et al.
(2008) prepared a slurry of clay with water and eventually mixed the
required amount of fibers manually. In this study, manual mixing was
adopted for mixing soil and fibers, as adopted by Tang et al. (2012),
Olgun (2013), Bhadriraju et al. (2005) and Divya et al. (2014). The
clay was oven-dried, crushed, and sieved through a 425 μm sieve. Differ-
ent fiber contents (0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, and 0.75% by dry weight of the soil)
were used for fiber lengths of 15 mm, 30 mm, and 50 mm in the prep-
aration of fiber-reinforced clay specimen, as shown in Table 5. Initially,
a mix of dry clay and fibers was prepared, to which water was gradually
added to make a slurry and mixed with spatulas for approximately
10 min. All specimens were prepared close to the liquid limit of the
soil. The prepared slurry was poured into a borosilicate glass container
(100 mm in diameter) to achieve a specimen thickness of 15 mm, i.e. as-
pect ratio of 10.33 was maintained. A specimen height of 15 mm was
considered so as to produce distinguishable crack patterns to compare
the effect of fiber content and fiber length. A quantitative analysis sug-
gests existence of minimal aspect ratio of around 5.8, below which no
macroscopic cracks occur in the material (Colina and Roux, 2000). In
the present study, the effect of varying clay layer thicknesses has not
been considered.
The container with soil slurry was tapped gently on a wooden plat-
form in order to remove the air bubbles. The inner surface of the glass
containers used in the study was free from any scratches, protrusions
and depressions, to provide a uniform drying surface. The prepared
specimens were covered with a plastic film and stored inside a desicca-
tor for about 17 h to allow the soil-fiber mixture to hydrate uniformly.
2.3.2. Test condition and procedure
The prepared specimen was placed in the test setup and allowed to
desiccate under a 500 W Tungsten Halogen lamp, as shown in the sche-
matic setup in Fig. 3. All tests were performed at a fairly constant tem-
perature of 50 °C and relative humidity of 20% Rh, as recorded in the
thermo-hygrometer that is located close to the setup. The specimen
were dried for 450 min and their individual weights were measured
Table 5
Details of desiccation tests performed.

Test legend f (%) l (mm)

Table 3 T1 – –
Mechanical properties of a single filament of polyester fiber. T2 0.25 15
T3 0.50 15
Properties Value
T4 0.75 15
Specific gravity 1.35 T5 0.25 30
Effective diameter (μm) 40 T6 0.50 30
Linear density (tex) 0.331 T7 0.75 30
Breaking force for single filament (mN) 112.72 T8 0.25 50
Tenacity (mN/tex) 340.56 T9 0.50 50
Strain at break (%) 45.53 T10 0.75 50
Fusion point (°C) 165
Note: l = fiber length; f = fiber content.

Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
4 U. Chaduvula et al. / Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
Fig. 3. Schematic representation of the test setup.
every 50 min in order to measure the amount of loss in moisture. A dig-
ital camera that was equipped with an interval timer was used to cap-
ture images of the drying soil specimen every five minutes.
2.3.3. Digital image processing and analysis
Digital Image analysis has evolved as a powerful tool to investigate
desiccation cracking of the soil and to measure the surficial features of
cracks (Puppala et al., 2004; Peron et al., 2009). The image analysis pro-
cess involved first, image acquisition, then image processing, and then
measurements of crack features. The processed images with adjusted
contrast and saturation were loaded into an image analysis program,
ImageJ (Abramoff et al., 2004), for crack feature measurements.
Markers, which were placed on the glass container, were used to set
scale for measurements. The average area of the cells into which the
specimen is divided, the average crack opening width, the average spac-
ing between two cracks, and the total cracked area were measured. Lin-
ear measurements such as the width of the crack opening and the
average spacing were measured in a grayscale image. Area
Fig. 4. Terminology used for crack feature measurements that are used in the present
study.
Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
measurements such as the total cracked area and the cell area were
measured by converting the grayscale image to a binary image. A special
function in ImageJ was used to measure the quantities from the binary
image. The basic crack feature terminology adapted is represented in
Fig. 4. The image was divided into equal parts, such that each grid mea-
sured 2500 square pixel. The crack features in each grid were measured
in order to obtain an average of the measurements of the crack.
3. Results
3.1. Crack morphology and cell area
X-ray diffraction (XRD) is the most widely used technique to under-
stand the clay mineralogy and expansive nature (Likos, 2004). The ex-
pansive clay exhibits a Free Swell Index of 120% (As per ASTM D
5890-02, 2002) as shown in Table 1. This is largely due to the presence
of high montmorillonite content that attracts and holds water in the
crystalline double layers of molecules (Table 2). Desiccation causes the
removal of water from these layers, causing an overall volumetric re-
duction and crack formation.
Nahlawi and Kodikara (2006) classified desiccation crack types as
primary, secondary, and tertiary. The first set of cracks that is generated
within the clay mass is called primary cracks, which subsequently in
turn divides to form secondary and tertiary cracks. Fig. 5 shows typical
appearance and evolution of cracks in unreinforced and fiber-reinforced
specimen at three different desiccation times of 150 min, 300 min, and
time at which time the test was terminated, i.e. 450 min. The unrein-
forced soil specimen forms a characteristic hierarchical cracking pat-
tern, primarily governed by subdivision (Costa et al., 2013). The
primary cracks propagate faster through the entire depth. They are lon-
ger, wider, and divide the clay mass into large cells. The cells subse-
quently shrink upon drying generating large crack widths, as
presented in Fig. 5. However, in specimens with fibers added, the cracks
are short and jagged, and the average cell area A has reduced drastically
along with the crack widths, as shown in the histograms in Fig. 6. The
average cell area for the unreinforced specimen is 232.65 mm2; it de-
creases to 38.6 mm2 for the fiber-reinforced soil specimen with f =
0.5% and l = 15 mm. It is also worth noting that the crack cell area in re-
inforced clay is much more uniform than for the unreinforced clay. This
helps to keep the crack widths also relatively uniform, which is impor-
tant from an overall hydraulic conductivity point of view.
Fig. 5. Evolution and propagation of desiccation cracks in soil specimen with time.
 U. Chaduvula et al. / Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 5

Fig. 6. Histogram showing the size distribution of the cells.

3.2. Crack propagation

Usually, an internally generated crack tends to propagate from both

of its ends till it intersects another crack or in contrast, edge generated
cracks would propagate until it meets another existing crack at mostly
right angles due to stress relief perpendicular to the existing crack
(Morris et al., 1992). The intersection angle between two cracks is al-
most orthogonal in clays, as shown in Fig. 5a. However, the orthogonal-
ity of the cracks changes in the fiber-reinforced soil specimen. The non-
orthogonality of cracking pattern occurs due to non-uniform drying,
lower thickness of soil layer and variable ground conditions (Kodikara
et al., 2002). The presence of fibers changes the intrinsic propagation
and release of the developed tensile stress through the thickness of
the soil. An irregular network of cracking pattern consisting of non-or-
thogonal cracks with intersection angle less or more than 90° is ob-
served. The intersection angle may be considered as a function of the
orientation and distribution of fibers in the clay mass during crack initi-
ation. The presence of fibers may cause bifurcation or diversion of single
propagating crack. However, more study at micro-structure level during
crack propagation is needed for better understanding.
3.3. Crack feature measurements
The crack features including the average crack width, spacing, cell
area, the final crack intensity factor, and the average shrinkage strain
for the unreinforced and fiber-reinforced soils at the end of all tests
were measured using digital image analysis, as summarized in Table 6.
3.3.1. Crack width
The crack opening width was determined by measuring the shortest
distance from one randomly chosen point on the boundary of one cell to
the boundary of the opposite cell. As the soil desiccation progresses fur-
ther, for all specimen the crack opening width or the crack width, wavg,
Fig. 7. Variation of wavg with te after commencement of test.
increases until it becomes generally stable at the end of desiccation for
the given environment, as presented in Fig. 7. The hydraulic conductiv-
ity of the desiccated soil is a function of the width of crack. Fluid flow
through a single crack is commonly described by parallel plate model.
For the theory of laminar flow between parallel plates, the flow rate is
proportional to the cube of the spacing between the plates
(Witherspoon et al., 1980), which gives an indication of this dependen-
cy. Hence, the wider cracks will dominate mass hydraulic conductivity
of soil and allow a larger quantity of flow through the cracks, thereby in-
creasing the overall hydraulic conductivity of a clay layer (He et al.,
2015).
As can be seen from Fig. 7, the crack widths observed at the point of
crack initiation (or initial crack widths) were reduced monotonically as
the fiber content increased. The final crack widths (at the end of desic-
cation), wavg,final of fiber-reinforced soil specimens were generally ob-
served to be always less than the unreinforced soil specimen, as
shown in Fig. 8. The cracks that formed in the fiber-reinforced soil spec-
imen were relatively narrow, and the crack cells were still connected by
the fibers, thereby providing overall stiffness to the clay mass despite
cracking. The reduction in crack widths and maintaining certain stiff-
ness within cracked layers were desirable properties for improved per-
formance of a modified barrier system. The influence of different fiber
content and length on final crack widths were marginal except that
minimum final crack widths were observed for f = 0.5% and l = 30 mm.

Table 6
Crack feature measurements at the end of all tests determined using image analysis.

Test legend wavg (mm) savg (mm) Aavg (mm2) CIF (%) εavg (%)

T1 6.0 ± 0.21 13.2 ± 2.05 232.6 ± 97.2 37.9 19 ± 1.23

T2 1.9 ± 0.15 5.6 ± 1.90 35.7 ± 4.67 25.7 13 ± 1.46
T3 1.6 ± 0.18 6.6 ± 1.93 38.7 ± 4.10 12.7 11 ± 1.19
T4 2.3 ± 0.18 4.0 ± 1.78 24.8 ± 4.92 23.9 15 ± 1.04
T5 2.3 ± 0.17 8.6 ± 1.85 66.3 ± 9.12 19.7 14 ± 1.11
T6 1.7 ± 0.15 4.2 ± 1.97 19.7 ± 3.46 15.9 16 ± 0.98
T7 2.7 ± 0.19 5.7 ± 1.89 38.7 ± 5.76 27.4 17 ± 1.90
T8 2.5 ± 0.19 7.4 ± 1.71 60.3 ± 7.99 19.6 17 ± 1.02
T9 2.0 ± 0.20 5.5 ± 1.82 35.6 ± 3.43 23.8 19 ± 1.27
T10 3.0 ± 0.19 6.7 ± 1.95 47.7 ± 6.62 27.2 19 ± 1.87

Note: wavg = average crack width; savg = average crack spacing; Aavg = average cell area;
CIF = crack intensity factor, εavg = average shrinkage strain. Fig. 8. Variation of wavg,final with fiber content for different fiber lengths.

Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
6 U. Chaduvula et al. / Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

3.3.2. Crack spacing and depth

The crack spacing, s is the shortest distance between one point on
the boundary of a cell and the point on opposite boundary of the same
cell. The crack spacing or cell area depends on the thickness of the soil
layer, the desiccation rate, and the base material (Corte and Higashi,
1960). The crack spacing is approximately equal to the square root of
the cell area (assuming a square crack pattern) (Nahlawi and
Kodikara, 2006). However, some variation is observed in the case of
the fiber-reinforced soil specimen, because the cells are irregular, non-
uniform and jagged. The average crack spacing savg decreases on inclu-
sion of fibers and keeps on decreasing as the soil shrinks, as presented
in Fig. 9. The initial crack spacing is approximately halved with the addi-
tion of fibers with similar effects on the final crack spacing. The ratio of
average of all final spacing values to the corresponding depth (or thick-
ness) of specimen at the end of the test is defined as (savg)final/d. Fig. 10
shows the variation of (savg)final/d for unreinforced and fiber-reinforced Fig. 10. Variation of (savg)final/d with fiber content for different fiber lengths.
soil specimen for different fiber contents and fiber lengths. The value of
(savg)final/d reduces with the addition of fibers, and is found to be rela-
tively less for fiber content of 0.5% than 0.25% and 0.75%. increase in tensile strength (or decrease of moisture content at which
cracking started) with the increase of fiber content, the strain energy
3.3.3. Crack intensity factor (CIF) stored in the soil mass increased at the onset of cracking (Costa et al.,
The CIF is defined as the ratio of the total area of cracks, Ac, to the 2013). Since cracks derive energy to propagate from adjacent volume
total area of the specimen, At. This parameter represents the intensity of soil and it needs only to create crack surface areas, this classic mis-
of cracking in the specimen and is given by, (Miller et al., 1998) match of volume to area leads to smaller cracking spacing when fracture
energy is optimized in crack formation (Costa et al., 2013). This transi-
AC tion tends to favor non-orthogonal crack formation and it is argued
CIF ¼ ð1Þ
At that this phenomenon also corroborates the observed shift in cracking
pattern from purely orthogonal to somewhat non-orthogonal as in the
The typical variation of CIF and the water content for unreinforced case of fiber added specimens.
(Test: T1) and fiber-reinforced soils (Tests: T5, T6, T7) is shown in Fig.
11. At any water content, the CIF for the unreinforced soil is always 3.3.4. Shrinkage strain
higher than the corresponding CIF value of the fiber-reinforced soil. Bhadriraju et al. (2005) attempted to measure the volumetric
The finer, shorter, and irregular cracks in the fiber-reinforced soil give shrinkage strains of the fiber-reinforced expansive soil specimen using
rise to the lower CIF which results in higher integrity of the soil speci- digital imaging. They found that fiber reinforcement reduces volumetric
men. The presence of fibers helps in reducing the crack width and the shrinkage strain by 15%–24%. Digital image based measurement sys-
surficial area of cracks, which, in turn, reduces the crack intensity. Sim- tems always give better results when compared to manual methods, be-
ilar observations were reported by Miller and Rifai (2004); Qiang et al. cause the uneven surface cracks are also taken into consideration during
(2014) and Harianto et al. (2008). analysis.
Another important observation is that the water content at which The observed final shrinkage strain was computed for the unrein-
cracking commenced, decreased monotonically as the fiber content in- forced and fiber-reinforced soil specimen as presented in Fig. 12a. Con-
creased. As reported by Costa et al. (2013), the cracks initiate when sidering that a cell of original length L shrinks by δ1 from one side and δ2
the soil tensile stress generated by soil suction reaches prevailing tensile from other side, the shrinkage strain, ε is defined as the ratio of the
strength of the soil. Therefore, this behavior can be considered to occur change in the length of a cell due to shrinkage (δ1 + δ2) to the original
due to the increase in mass tensile strength of clay with the addition of length of the cell (L). For regular shapes, the shrinkage strain can be
fibers. This effect can also explain the reduction in cell area with the ad-
dition of fibers (shown in Figs. 5 and 6) as follows. Because of the

Fig. 11. Variation of CIF for unreinforced (T1) and fiber-reinforced specimen (T5, T6, T7)
Fig. 9. Variation of crack spacing, savg with time elapsed in minutes. with respect to water content.

Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
 U. Chaduvula et al. / Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 7

Fig. 13. (a) Locations for measurement of distribution of fibers on fiber reinforced
specimen. (b) Variation of fiber contents measured at five different locations in soil
specimen.

Fig. 12. (a) Schematic representation of shrinkage strain. (b) Variation of εavg with fiber
content for different fiber lengths.
ratio of change in the dimension of crack spacing to the original crack
spacing. Fig. 12b shows a plot of average final shrinkage strain (εavg)
for unreinforced and reinforced soil specimen. There is a significant de-
crease in shrinkage strains for the specimen that are reinforced with
15 mm and 30 mm fiber lengths. Specimen with a fiber length of
50 mm were found to have almost the same shrinkage strain (18%–
20%) as unreinforced soil.
4. Discussion
4.1. Uniformity
fibers and the soil was measured separately. The fiber content was com-
puted for each case, as presented in Fig. 13b. The standard deviation of
the measured fiber contents at different locations was found to be
0.04 for l = 15 mm, 0.06 for l = 30 mm, and the maximum, that is,
0.39, for l = 50 mm fibers and f = 0.75%. Fig. 14 shows the typical
cross-section of fiber-reinforced soil chunks that were cut out of the
desiccated soil specimen. The shorter fibers were noticed to be evenly
distributed in the clay mass, as shown in Fig. 14a. The longer fibers un-
dergo clustering and, thus, exhibit a non-uniform distribution of fibers,
and this is not favorable for prevention of cracking (Fig. 14b).
4.2. Integrity of fiber-reinforced soil specimen
The performance of the clay barrier in the waste containment sys-
tem is a function of its intactness or integrity. The chemical integrity
of the fiber reinforced soil can be maintained by selection of appropriate
material. As discussed in the materials and methods, alkali resistant
polyester fibers were used to reinforce the expansive clay having

The distribution of fibers in the clay mass is very crucial in maintain-

ing the homogeneity of soil specimen, since cracks could occur along
paths of least resistance. Puppala et al. (2006), examined the uniformity
in distribution of fibers by slicing the specimen across the depth, and
measuring the fiber content in each slice at different locations. They
found that the standard deviation of the measured value of fiber content
was close to the target fiber content and confirmed that the fibers are
uniformly distributed in the specimen. In this study, the distribution of
fibers throughout the desiccated specimen was examined. The desiccat-
ed soil specimen were carefully cut, and soil-fiber mix chunks were se-
lected from five equally placed different locations from each specimen,
as shown in Fig. 13a. The initial weight of the chunk was measured for
reference. Each chunk was then dissolved in water for 24 h, dried, and
sieved such that the fibers and soil were separated. The weight of the Fig. 14. Distribution of fibers in specimen reinforced specimen.

Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
8 U. Chaduvula et al. / Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Fig. 15. (a) Crack formation in unreinforced soil specimen; (b) Bridging effect due to fibers in reinforced soil specimen.

pH = 7. In these laboratory experiments, the mechanical integrity of the
clay mass is severely affected due to desiccation cracking. Unreinforced
soil specimen crack to form cells that get separated, thereby damaging
the integrity and altering the performance of the clay layers (Fig. 15a).
The cells that were formed in the unreinforced soil specimen separated
completely and could be moved, whereas in the fiber-reinforced soil
specimen, even though the cracks penetrated the full depth at the end
of the test, the cells were reinforced with fibers. It means that the spec-
imen can still bear the tensile stresses before complete pulling out of fi-
bers. Tang et al. (2010) performed pullout tests on single fiber
embedded in soil matrix and found that the interfacial shear strength
increases with a decrease in water content in the specimen. Therefore,
as the soil desiccates, the bridging effect due to fibers increases. Fig.
15b shows the images of cracked samples of unreinforced and fiber re-
inforced specimen. The bridging effect due to fibers is seen at actual and
micro-scale images. (Tang et al., 2012).
The effective contact area and the normal stress between the soil and
the fibers increases as the soil desiccates due to a decrease in moisture
and associated increase in soil suction. This change increases the inter-
facial strength and helps the fibers to restrain the separating soil mass
at crack initiation.
4.3. Crack reduction ratio
To cumulatively quantify the effect of fiber reinforcement on all
crack measurements, Miller and Rifai (2004) introduced the Crack re-
duction ratio (CRR) in order to assess the performance of unreinforced
and fiber-reinforced soils, and is given by,
reduction may be attributed to the increased tensile strength of the clay
mass due to fiber reinforcement. This is in agreement with previous in-
vestigations by Miller and Rifai (2004), Harianto et al. (2008), Tang et al.
(2012), Olgun (2013), and Qiang et al. (2014). The fibers enhance the
interfacial shear strength of clay due to adhesion and the surface rough-
ness of the fiber, and hence the clay mass is able to bear the tensile
stresses that develop due to desiccation.
4.4. Effect of fiber length and fiber content
The crack feature measurements were analyzed in order to deter-
mine the optimum fiber length for various fiber contents. The crack re-
duction was found higher for l = 15 mm and l = 30 mm fibers and not
for l = 50 mm. A longer fiber length of l = 50 mm prevented proper dis-
persion of fibers in the clay mass. Olgun (2013) reported similar ineffi-
ciency of longer length of fibers at l = 20 mm on the strength and
volume change characteristics of cement-fly-ash-stabilized clay soil.
The longer fibers did not provide the necessary interlocking due to floc-
culation and non-uniform dispersion. However, Tang et al. (2012) re-
ported that there was an increase in crack reduction with an increase
in fiber content and that no significant effect due to fiber length was ob-
served on the crack reduction of fiber reinforced soil.
The effect of the length of the fibers is dependent on the range of the
stress and strain that is applied to the soil specimen. Longer lengths of

CIFn −CIF f
CRR ¼ % ð2Þ
CIFn

CIFn = crack intensity factor for unreinforced soil, and CIFf = crack
intensity factor for fiber-reinforced soil. The CRR was computed for
fiber-reinforced soil specimen (Tests: T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, and
T10) and is potted in Fig. 16.
There is a 26% to 66% reduction in the cracked area in comparison
with the unreinforced soil specimen due to fiber reinforcement. As indi-
cated above, the maximum crack reduction is observed for specimen re-
inforced with fibers of fiber content f = 0.5% and l = 15 mm. The crack Fig. 16. Variation of CRR with fiber content for different fiber lengths.

Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
 U. Chaduvula et al. / Applied Clay Science xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
fibers play a significant role in large strain problems such as differential
settlements (like bending strains) and direct shear test. Divya et al.
(2014) stated that soil reinforced with very short fibers failed like a brit-
tle material, whereas longer fibers provided a better and prolonged re-
sistance (i.e. ductile behavior) against cracking after crack initiation. In
the present study, it is observed that the short fibers get evenly distrib-
uted in the clay mass and help in restraining the formation of crack. The
longer fibers are longer than necessary and form clusters, leaving a large
portion of soil unreinforced. Therefore, a more comprehensive study on
the combination of fiber lengths is needed in order to restrain desicca-
tion cracking and enhance the tensile properties of the clay layer.
The cracking behavior of fiber-reinforced soil also depends on the
fiber content. This correlates with the fact that the same fiber with
same diameter was used in the study. The average effective contact
area between the soil and the fiber increases (per unit mass of soil)
with an increase in the fiber content. The specimen integrity and crack
reduction increased substantially for up to 0.5% of fiber content, but de-
creased considerably for a fiber content of 0.75%. Estabragh et al. (2012)
investigated the mechanical characteristics of a soil-cement-fiber mix-
ture with varying nylon fiber contents and curing time. The increase
in the fiber content did not show any significant effect on strength im-
provement beyond 1%. Olgun (2013) reported a similar observation
for fiber-reinforced cement-fly-ash–stabilized clay soil. Therefore, addi-
tional fiber content is not required after reaching a certain level.
According to this study, clay barrier systems that are modified with fi-
bers can reduce the crack widths and therefore the overall hydraulic con-
ductivity of the soil mass since the hydraulic conductivity through cracks is
proportional to cube of the crack width (Witherspoon et al., 1980). In ad-
dition, since the cracks in reinforced soil are wide spread and still bridged
by the fibers, the overall strength and stiffness of the soil mass does not de-
crease as much as for a case of an unreinforced soil, where a relatively
small number cracks but with large crack widths occur during desiccation.
5. Conclusions
Laboratory desiccation tests were performed on expansive clay with
and without polyester fibers with three different fiber contents and
fiber lengths. The following conclusions can be drawn from the present
study that investigated the desiccation cracking behavior of polyester
fiber inclusions in expansive soil:
• A significant change in the cracking pattern of expansive clay is ob-
served due to the presence of fibers. While wide crack widths and
long cracks are formed in unreinforced soil, the addition of fibers con-
trolled the crack width opening, the cracked area, and the propagation
of cracks through the bridging action of fibers. The fibers decreased
the connectivity of crack networks.
• The crack intensity and shrinkage strain for fiber-reinforced soil were
found to be substantially less than those of unreinforced soil. However,
fiber length and fiber content plays an important role in reinforcement.
The effect of fibers at longer lengths of fibers at higher fiber contents was
found to be insignificant in restraining desiccation cracking. The distri-
bution of fibers throughout the clay mass was found to be uniform in
soil specimen that were reinforced with fibers of 15 mm and 30 mm.
• The image processing technique was found to be effective in quantifying
the crack feature measurements and providing useful information. Un-
doubtedly, fiber inclusion helps in crack reduction due to the increased
tensile strength of the clay mass. In this study, 66% crack reduction
was achieved from the range of fiber lengths and fiber contents used.
Crack features such as crack width, crack spacing and cell area became
narrower with the addition of fibers.
• Maximum crack reduction of fiber reinforced clay was found to be for
fiber length 15 mm at 0.5% fiber content. More comprehensive study
on the use of a mixture of short and long fiber lengths is needed in
order to address barriers that are subjected to different ranges of tensile
stresses and strains.
Please cite this article as: Chaduvula, U., et al., A study on desiccation cracking behavior of polyester fiber-reinforced expansive clay, Appl. Clay Sci.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2017.02.008
9
The SEM images reveal that the fibers hold a separated soil mass at a
micro level. The interaction between the fibers and the soil is entirely
due to adhesion. The clay particles adhere to the irregular trilobal
cross section of the polyester fiber, which provides better interfacial
strength. This shows that fiber reinforcement can be considered as an
efficient method to restrain desiccation cracking of clay barriers that
are used in waste containment systems. This study was undertaken by
preparing the soil and fibers at dry state and then mixing them to almost
slurry state. This process is strictly applicable to certain field scenarios
such as slurry walls, mine tailings etc. So further work is necessary to
study soils that are compacted close to compaction optimum water con-
tents as applicable to field compacted clay liners.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Ms. Aditi Palsapure, (Intern, Depart-
ment of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay), VIT University, Vellore, India for
her contribution during experimental investigations. We also thank the
staff of Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory, IIT Bombay, M/s Pragati
Enterprises, Mumbai, India for supplying the fibers and BTRA, Mumbai,
India for their support in testing of fibers. The authors would also like to
thank the editor and reviewers for their critical review in improving the
quality of the manuscript.
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