Scaling of the reinforcement of soil slopes by living plants in a geotechnical centrifuge

Liang, Teng; Bengough, A. Glyn; Knappett, Jonathan; MuirWood, D.; Loades, Kenneth; Hallett, Paul D.; Boldrin, David; Leung, Anthony Kwan; Meijer, G. J.

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.06.067

Cited by 75 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Root samples were excavated and washed from the soil, with extra care taken not to discard finer roots. The measurements of the two plant traits followed the procedures reported in Boldrin et al (2017) and Liang et al (2017).…”

Section: Test Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two soil hydraulic properties, the soil water retention curve and soil hydraulic conductivity function, are needed to solve the equation. The soil water retention curve of the silty sand was measured by Liang et al (2017) andvan Genuchten (1980) model parameters fitted to the data (Table 4). The soil hydraulic conductivity function was estimated using the Muleam-van Genuchten equation (van Genuchten, 1980).…”

Section: Engineering Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plant age effects on soil infiltration rate during early plant establishment

et al. 2017

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Infiltration rate affects slope stability by determining the rate of water transport to potential failure planes. This note considers the influences of vegetation (grass and willow) establishment and root growth dynamics on infiltration rate, as related to establishing vegetation on bioengineered slopes. Soil columns of silty sand with and without vegetation were tested by constant-head infiltration tests at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks after planting. Infiltration rate increased linearly with plant age and below-ground traits including root biomass and root length density. Infiltration rate for willow-rooted soil was an order of magnitude higher than for fallow soil. The plant age effect was more prominent for willow, which grew faster and with thicker roots than the grass. Illustrative seepage analysis suggests that ignoring the plant age effects could underestimate wetting front advancement to greater depths during rainfall, and underestimate suction recovery at shallow depths during internal drainage.

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Section: Test Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Engineering Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant age effects on soil infiltration rate during early plant establishment

et al. 2017

Self Cite

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“…= (8) where  and  are empirical constants and specific to species. To account for the dependency of root water content on root diameter (Fig.…”

Section: Shear Strength Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soil bioengineering using plants has been considered to be an environmentally-friendly technique for shallow slope stabilisation . Plants have previously been thought to affect the soil shear strength via mechanical root reinforcement (e.g., Stokes et al 2009;Liang et al 2017), rainfall interception by canopy (e.g., Barbier et al 2009) and transpiration-induced soil matric suction (e.g., Rahardjo et al 2014). Scanlan and Chinz (2009) propose that plant roots occupy soil pore space and alter the soil water retention curve (SWRC) and hydraulic conductivity function (SHCF).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of hydromechanical properties of plant roots in unsaturated soil shear strength

Leung

Boldrin

Karimzadeh

et al. 2019

JGS Special Publication

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Plants increase slope stability through mechanical reinforcement by roots and transpiration-induced matric suction (hence increase in soil shear strength; known as hydrological reinforcement). The effects of root water status on root biomechanical properties (e.g. volume change and tensile properties), and eventually the shear strength of rooted soil, have not yet been fully investigated. This paper studies the hydromechanical properties of plant roots and estimates how these properties may affect unsaturated soil strength. The root water retention curve (RWRC), is introduced as a new concept to relate root water content and root suction. Unsaturated shear strength equations are hypothesised to utilise RWRC to couple the mechanical and hydrological reinforcement by plant roots. The potential importance of considering the effects of root hydromechanical properties on soil shear strength is highlighted, together with the need to fully test and develop the underlying models.

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“…Traditional slope protection generally use geotextiles protection measures such as bolt shotcrete or dry pitching, but these measures totally confine the growth environment of plant while protecting the slope [1][2][3], this makes the original plant on the slope unable torecover in short period of time and destroy the ecological environment [4][5][6][7], besides, geotechnical structure always produce weathering and shedding over time which induce the decrease of strength, so the performance of protection becomes worse and worse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of bermuda grass root morphology on the displacement of slope

Xiaolei

Yang

2019

MATEC Web Conf.

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During recent years, with the drastic development of highway, lots of slopes are produced which cause the increase of geological disasters including soil erosion on the slope and shallow sliding surface, it makes significant impact on the ecological environment. Adopting ecological protection technique of plant slope protection not only can prevent geological disasters, but also benefit the protection of ecological environment. In the paper, bermuda grass, as one kind of ordinary slope protection plants, was chosen as specimen, and the root-soil composite was regarded as organic system which consists of soil and root system; the effect of root morphology on displacement of slope surface under the function of rain erosion and slope runoff erosion was studied and analyzed by using nonlinearity finite calculation method. The result indicates Bermuda grass root system can defense the rain erosion of slope surface soil, restrain the soil displacement and prevent water and soil erosion of slope.

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Scaling of the reinforcement of soil slopes by living plants in a geotechnical centrifuge

Cited by 75 publications

References 61 publications

Plant age effects on soil infiltration rate during early plant establishment

Plant age effects on soil infiltration rate during early plant establishment

Role of hydromechanical properties of plant roots in unsaturated soil shear strength

The effect of bermuda grass root morphology on the displacement of slope

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