Abstract
The stability of slopes of China’s Loess Plateau, where fissured loess is abundant, is affected by wet–dry cycles. Uniaxial compression tests and the PCAS system were used to analyze the development of visible cracks and mechanical behavior of fissured loess over wet–dry cycles. Results show that the wet–dry cycles and the fissure angle both influence the development of cracks in fissured loess samples. The failure of fissured loess samples manifests as four main modes such as fracture failure, slip-fracture failure, slip failure, and compression-shear failure. Wet–dry cycles had a negligible effect on the failure mode in samples with fissure angles of 0°, 15°, 45°, and 60°, but were more noticeable at fissure angles of 30° and 90°, ranging from compression-shear failure to fracture failure. The initial elastic modulus and uniaxial compressive strength of fissured loess both decline after wet–dry cycles. After various wet–dry cycles, the associations between uniaxial compressive strength and fissure angle all display a double-V shaped pattern, with abrupt shifts in 45°–90° and the minimum value at a fissure angle of 60°. After wet–dry cycles, the uniaxial compressive strength of fissured loess decreases, while the amplitude of change decreases.
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The research described in this paper was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51878551 and 51778528), and the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (Program No.2019JLM-56). These supports are greatly appreciated.
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Conceptualization: JX; methodology: JX, SW; formal analysis and investigation: KH, LZ; writing-original draft preparation: KH; writing-review and editing: KH, LZ; data curation: YL, LZ, WY, KH; funding acquisition: JX; resources: JX, SW; supervision: JX, SW.
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Xu, J., Hu, K., Zhou, L. et al. Influence of wet–dry cycles on uniaxial compression behavior of fissured loess. Environ Earth Sci 82, 5 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10684-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10684-3