Effect of interaggregate capillary cracks on the hydraulic conductivity of swelling clay soils

Abstract

Clay soils, as a result of shrinking-swelling, usually have a capillary crack network. The objective of this presentation is to develop a physically based model of the hydraulic conductivity of a swelling clay matrix with interaggregate capillary cracks only. It is based on a number of assumptions relating in the main to the geometrical characteristics of the capillary crack network and the use of the cubic law for water flow in a water-filled slit. The key assumption speaks about the contraction of the interaggregate capillary crack volume in a drying but saturated clay matrix. The expression for vertical hydraulic conductivity of the network of cracks of width