A Review on Micro/Macroscopic Modelling of Desiccation Cracking in Soils

Abstract

Soils, particularly clayey soils, show desiccation cracking when drying. Soil desiccation cracking is a prevalent natural phenomenon involving complex physical processes and mechanisms, presenting significant challenges in developing numerical models. This review summarizes numerical methodologies for addressing soil cracking issues from microscopic to macroscopic scales. At microscales, the fundamental theory of the Young–Laplace equation and hemisphere approximation for water meniscus is introduced to investigate the attracting force between soil particles. Various numerical methods used to model the evolution of the water meniscus and the development of microcracks in soil are reviewed and compared here. At macroscales, coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical models are the mainstream approach for simulating desiccation cracking owing to varying temperature and moisture. Different numerical methods, such as mesh-based methods, mesh-free methods and particle-based methods, for addressing soil desiccation cracking are reviewed, including their advantages, disadvantages, and recommended application scenarios. Furthermore, the future perspectives for soil desiccation cracking are discussed combined with the peridynamics method, including the three-phase solid–liquid-gas medium model for water meniscus, parameter homogenization for multiscale models, thermo-hydro-mechanical coupling and elastoplastic peridynamic model, cracking and healing criteria, complex climatic and environmental conditions and the development of hybrid numerical models. This review provides not only an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms underlying soil desiccation cracking modelling but also numerical techniques for the digital implementation of theoretical models for soil desiccation cracking modeling.