Drying causes shrinkage in soils and may yield the formation of crack. This paper reports on various experimental observations on desiccation tests performed in the laboratory under controlled conditions over samples of ‘Bengawan Solo’ soil; from a defence embankment along the Bengawan Solo River, Indonesia. A number of tests have been carried out to study the desiccation process; including desiccation plate tests (circular and rectangular bar desiccation plate). An attempts has been taken to study desiccation cracking very generally for this soil. As a first step this paper presents the basic characteristics and shrinkage properties of the Bengawan Solo soil, including soil mineralogy, linear shrinkage limits and results from desiccation plate. The preliminary experimental observation focuses on how crack initiates and propagates, cracking water content, the influence of different specimen thickness and different plate shape and base conditions. To characterise the crack patterns quantitatively digital image analysis (DIA) techniques have been used to analyse the desiccation plate tests. Number of crack intersections, number of crack segments, total length of cracks, average width of cracks and crack intensity factor (CIF) has been determined for this purpose.

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