Tensile strength of a compacted vegetated soil: Laboratory results and reinforcement interpretation

Archive ouverte

Fraccica, Alessandro | Romero, Enrique | Fourcaud, Thierry

Edité par CCSD ; Elsevier -

International audience. So far, root reinforcement on soil has been primarily evaluated through direct shear and roots pull-out tests, while the effect of other stress paths and the behaviour at the soil–root​ interface are still poorly investigated. In this regard, an apparatus with the facility to test soil and roots jointly under uniaxial extension is presented in the paper, together with its first results.Vegetated samples with Cynodon dactilon were tested after one and three months of growth. Soil exhibited a ductile response when close to saturation and a brittle one at drier states within the field capacity domain. The presence of roots increased the material’s tensile strength and enhanced its post-peak ductility. Measurements of matric suction and degree of saturation allowed interpreting the results in terms of constitutive stresses within a shear strength failure criterion for partially saturated soils. Even if plant roots critically impacted soil hydraulics, a positive strengthening effect was noticed on its mechanical behaviour.Roots mechanical and morphological features were characterised after tests. Two well-established root reinforcement models in the literature were used to interpret the results at the phenomenological scale while considering the hydro-mechanical behaviour at the soil–root interface, different root’s reinforcement mechanisms and the effect of soil’s hydro-mechanical states.

Consulter en ligne

Suggestions

Du même auteur

TERRE project: interplay between unsaturated soil mechanics and low-carbon geotechnical engineering

Archive ouverte | Tarantino, Alessandro | CCSD

International audience. The geotechnical construction industry is a major component of the overall construction sector and is strategically important in infrastructure development (transportation, flood and landslid...

Multi-scale effects on the hydraulic behaviour of a root-permeated and compacted soil

Archive ouverte | Fraccica, Alessandro | CCSD

International audience. While roots have been generally proved to be beneficial to soil mechanical behaviour, different and counterposed results have been found when investigating their effects on soil hydraulic res...

Tensile strength of a vegetated and partially saturated soil

Archive ouverte | Fraccica, Alessandro | CCSD

International audience. Vegetated soil’s shear strength has been usually assessed through direct shear tests and under triaxial compression stress paths while less is known about its behaviour...

Chargement des enrichissements...