Modelling of shrinkage crack development in porous media

澳大利亚有有趣的土地构成，包括各种活性土壤和岩石。 由于材料在干燥或冷却过程中的收缩而形成的裂纹图案对其起源和随后的行为具有显著影响。 收缩裂缝对建筑物、道路和埋地管道的使用性能影响很大。 它们形成的可能性在许多工程设计中很重要，从几毫米厚的材料膜到危险废物填埋场使用的数百米长的粘土屏障。 尽管其广泛的意义，定量方法来预测裂缝的形成和解释还没有，这个项目将提供一个解决这个问题。

Australia has interesting land formations comprising various reactive soils and rock. The formation of cracking patterns due to material shrinkage during either drying or cooling has a significant influence on their origin and subsequent behaviour. The shrinkage cracks significantly affect the performance of buildings, roads and buried pipelines. The possibility of their formation is important in many engineering designs, ranging from few millimetres thick material film to hundreds of metres long clay barriers used in hazardous waste landfills. Despite their wide-spread significance, quantitative methods to predict the crack formation and interpretation are not yet available, and this project will provide a solution to this problem.