Soil Reinforcement by River Plants: Progress Results

Goldsmith, Wendi

doi:10.1061/40382(1998)30

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Only few references were found in the literature concerning shear strength evaluation of rooted soil in laboratory (Goldsmith, 1998;Operstein and Frydman, 2000) and on site (Wu and Watson, 1998). In order to quantify the contribution of roots to soil shear strength, direct shear tests both on soil and on root reinforced soil, respectively, were carried out.…”

Section: Contribution Of Roots To Soil Shear Strengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slope Stabilisation by Perennial “Gramineae” in Southern Italy: Plant Growth and Temporal Performance

Cazzuffi

Corneo²,

Crippa

2006

Geotech Geol Eng

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In the territory of Altomonte, a village located in Calabria, in the Southern part of Italy, a new thermoelectrical station is under construction. This work involved major earthworks which regarded new excavated slopes. In order to protect soil from erosion due to rainfall and runoff and also in order to prevent superficial soil instability, it was decided to plant four different species of perennial ''gramineae'' plants (Eragrass, Elygrass, Pangrass and Vetiver) characterised by deep roots. Works began in November 2002 and ended in May 2003, a period marked by very different climate and meteorological conditions, varying from exceptionally rainy and cold winter to warm and dry spring months. The paper describes the different stages of the project and the monitoring programme for the following months. The extension of the work and the use of four different kinds of vegetation made periodic inspections of the entire site appropriate. Two in situ investigations, respectively performed in August 2003 and in November 2003, are outlined. The aim of these surveys was to confirm the success of the work by verifying the growth of the plants and roots. The principal monitored parameters were the percentage of sprouted plants, the height of the foliage and the depth of roots. The investigations showed good results, keeping in mind the very difficult climatic conditions and the extreme poor fertility of the topsoil laid down upon the clay layer: in particular, high survival rate were measured over the entire area of the works and the root systems have developed sufficiently to grow through the upper topsoil layer (0.2-0.3 m) into the underlying clay layer. In March 2004, a sampling programme was undertaken on the same site. Direct shear tests were carried out in the laboratory in order to evaluate the increase in shear strength of the rooted soil mass. The research involved the recovery of three undisturbed samples of soil with roots for each of the four types of ''gramineae'' plants and three undisturbed samples constituted only of soil, from the surface to a depth of 1.0 m. The tests were performed in a large direct shear apparatus on 200 mm diameter samples. The test results allowed to evaluate the roots' contribution of the different gramineous species and to underline the direct correlation between the increase in soil shear strength and the root tensile strengths. In particular, an increase in cohesion ranging between 2 kPa and 15 kPa was recorded, according to the different species: the maximum values of increase in shear strength were reached by Vetiver roots, which are also characterised by the highest tensile strength.

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Section: Contribution Of Roots To Soil Shear Strengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slope Stabilisation by Perennial “Gramineae” in Southern Italy: Plant Growth and Temporal Performance

Cazzuffi

Corneo²,

Crippa

2006

Geotech Geol Eng

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“…The applications are well documented (Kruedener 1951;Sotir and Gray 1989;Kropp 1989;Coppin and Richards 1990;Suyama 1991;Goldsmith and Bestmann 1992;Morgan and Rickson 1995;Gray and Sotir 1996;Goldsmith 1998;Rivas 2003;Li 2006; Barrett et al 2006). Many studies on vegetation reinforced soils have been carried out.…”

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confidence: 95%

Biotechnical means of soil stabilization using willow cuttings

Xu¹,

Zhang²,

Wang³

et al. 2009

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

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Focus on the semi-arid and denuded loess plateau in Northwest China has resulted in emergence of biotechnical stabilization methods in response to the occurrence of severe soil erosion and numerous shallow slope failures. Green cuttings of easy-to-root species such as willow have been installed across a slope, which play an important role in preventing both surface erosion and shallow mass movements. However, the mechanical behavior of the cuttings in soil is not well understood so far. This paper presents a series of large-scale simple shear tests and finite element simulations of a soil reinforced by willow cuttings. The reinforced soils when subjected to simple shear exhibited strain-hardening behavior and failed along a horizontal plane. The shear strength of the reinforced soil increased with the cutting density and decreased with the soil water content. The finite element analysis, incorporating an elasto-plastic constitutive model for the soil, predicted shear strength parameters for the reinforced soil that agree well with those obtained from the simple shear tests. Significant stress concentrations occurred on the cuttings while the stresses in the soil were reducedhence, the reinforced soil could withstand greater loadings.

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“…Only few references were found in the literature concerning shear strength evaluation of rooted soil in laboratory [71,13,[72][73][74][75] and on site [7,40].…”

Section: Direct Shear Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geosynthetic Engineering and Vegetation Growth in Soil Reinforcement Applications

Cazzuffi

Cardile

Gioffrè

2014

Transp. Infrastruct. Geotech.

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In Italy, since early times, the environmental aspects have always been a key issue on the design and the application. Consequently, the geosynthetic reinforced soil structures consist of vegetated face steep slopes. Furthermore, the use of vegetation has also been recognized and incorporated in engineering practice for erosion control and for stabilization of shallow slopes. Vegetation influences slope stability and erosion process by both mechanical effects and hydrological effects. In particular, in the paper, the mechanical effects of vegetation related to soil stabilization will be described. The purpose of this paper is to present the specific role of vegetation in soil reinforcement applications, by means of the analysis of the available literature on the (i) factors affecting root reinforcement of soil, (ii) experimental tests carried out on roots and on roots-soil system, and (iii) analytical and theoretical models. The erosion applications will not treated in this paper. The use of vegetation in civil engineering and landscape works has grown in importance, even if the specific design standard concerning the use of vegetation for slope stabilization is still under discussion. Therefore, design and management of stabilization systems by plants require an accurate knowledge about the quantitative reinforcing root effects on soil strength.

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Soil Reinforcement by River Plants: Progress Results

Cited by 10 publications

References 1 publication

Slope Stabilisation by Perennial “Gramineae” in Southern Italy: Plant Growth and Temporal Performance

Slope Stabilisation by Perennial “Gramineae” in Southern Italy: Plant Growth and Temporal Performance

Biotechnical means of soil stabilization using willow cuttings

Geosynthetic Engineering and Vegetation Growth in Soil Reinforcement Applications

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