Experimental PIV Radial Splitting Study on Expansive Soil during the Drying Process

Expansive soil is prone to shrinkage and cracking during the drying process, leading to strength and permeability problems that exist widely in water conservancy projects and geotechnical engineering, including foundation pits and cracks at the bottom of channels and slopes. Such problems are closely related to the tensile strength of the soil. In this study, Nanyang expansive soil is taken as the research object and radial splitting tests were performed using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) test system on both undisturbed and remolded expansive soil during the drying process. The results indicated that the load–displacement curve of the undisturbed and remolded expansive soil specimens showed a strain-softening phenomenon and that the peak load increased with decreasing water content. Under the same other conditions, the peak load of the remolded expansive soil specimen was higher than that of the undisturbed soil specimen, with the undisturbed soil specimen having distinctive structural and fractural features. The load–displacement relation curve, displacement vector field, and fracture characteristics had an obvious one-to-one correspondence in the stage division. The compression deformation stage, crack development stage after the peak value, crack maturity stage, and failure stage could be observed via the PIV technique. Moreover, the fracture characteristics of the remolded specimens were more regular than those of the undisturbed specimens. The above research results provide a scientific basis for the design and construction of geotechnical engineering related to expansive soil.