SOIL REINFORCEMENT BY ROOTS

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Abstract
A root-soil model developed was extended to predict the amount of increase in soil shear resistance (root reinforcement) produced by stretching, slipping and breaking roots of various sizes. Young''s moduli, tensile strengths, and diameters of pine and barley roots were measured. Both moduli and strengths decreased with increasing root diameter. These data and root diameter distributions in the shear zone of 0.25-m diameter (pine) and 0.1-m diameter (barley) soil columns were applied to the model. Comparison of model simulations with experiments showed that .tau.'', the strength of the soil-root bond, is the most important unmeasured model parameter. Its value, rather than root strength, limited root reinforcement in saturated clay foam with both plant species and was of the order of 25 g g/cm2.

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