A coupled hydro-mechanical SPH framework to model desiccation cracking in clay soils

This thesis aims to develop a coupled hydro-mechanical smoothed particle hydrodynamics (HM-SPH) framework to model desiccation cracking in clay soils. In this framework, the fracture geometry is described by a set of Lagrangian particles, which carry their cohesive fracture process zones and move freely in the computational domain without being confined to any grid system. A coupled HM constitutive model is proposed to facilitate the modelling of the desiccation cracking process in clay soils without any ad-hoc treatment. The framework is shown to be a handy computational tool for studying diverse relevant aspects related to desiccation cracking mechanisms.