Abstract
Soils containing clay minerals (illite, montmorillonite) changing their volumes with soil-water content variation. Soil-water content decreases are followed by soil shrinkage, and increases in soil-water content is followed by swelling. These phenomena are expressed by the creation or closing of soil cracks , and the soil surface decreases/increases simultaneously. Soil cracks can be characterized by crack porosity, by their specific volume and by the specific surface; nets of cracks on the soil surface can be characterized by their specific length. An equilibrium relationship of crack porosity to soil-water content is typical of any particular soil. Soil cracks characterised by their volume and surface play an important role in water infiltration into dry, heavy soils; they significantly increase the retention volume of such soils and the infiltration surface of water-filling soil cracks . The importance of water infiltration into the soil matrix from cracks surface is demonstrated.
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References
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Novák, V., Hlaváčiková, H. (2019). Swelling and Shrinking Soils. In: Applied Soil Hydrology. Theory and Applications of Transport in Porous Media, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01806-1_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01806-1_16
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