Analysis of Mechanical Effects of Plant's Roots on Slope Reinforcement

摘要

To quantitatively evaluate the mechanical effect of plants' roots on slope reinforcement, this paper probes into the application of composite material theory and finite element method (FEM) to analysis of mechanical properties of soil and soil/root respectively. Soil with herbage roots is regarded as a kind of special composite material, soil is matrix and root is intensifier. Comparing to the test result, the result obtained by composite material model is not perfect but can be used to estimate the effect of roots on soil reinforcement. Moreover, the result obtained by FEM analysis confirms the effect of root on soil reinforcement, especially along the direction of root length.