Aspects of drying and cracking of geomaterials in energy applications

¹ Duke University, Durham, USA
² LMGC UMR 5508, CNRS-Université de Montpellier, France

^* Corresponding author: hueckel@duke.edu

Abstract

Because of common exposure to high temperatures and forced ventilation of geomaterials in energy production and storage, their failure mode often involves intense drying and constrained shrinkage associated cracking. Previous experiments show that drying cracking occurs when the materials are completely saturated, practically simultaneously with the onset of air entry and start of desaturation. The paper reports on the adhesion forces evolving in drying granular clusters and their critical value associated with the first air entry and formation of the drying cracks, as well as a critical saturation for meso-scale evaporating several grain cluster models of different porosities.