Calculation of increased soil shear strength from desert plant roots
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Calculation of increased soil shear strength from desert plant roots Bo Feng 1,2 & Quanli Zong 1 & Hangbing Cai 2 & Zhikang Chen 2 & Jianxin Wang 2 Received: 7 November 2018 / Accepted: 31 July 2019 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2019
Abstract Tarim River is one of the most important water sources in western China, which experiences serious soil erosion. Desert plant roots of various species in the Tarim River Basin can effectively stabilize the slopes. In this study, a total of 28 soil samples were obtained including 17 samples of root-soil composites. The results of soil tests indicate that the cohesion of root-soil composites with values from 9.43 to 28.30 kPa is generally higher than that of no-root soils with values from 3.14 to 16.51 kPa. However, the roots have a minimal impact on the internal friction angle of soils. The results of single root tensile experiment indicate that the tensile strengths of root decrease with the increase of root diameter, while the tensile forces increase with it. Two models of the root and soil interaction were proposed based on the assumptions of roots rigid state and flexible state, which represent the increased maximum and minimum shear strengths, respectively. The calculated value of increased maximum and minimum shear strengths compared with the experimental results proved that the measured increased shear strengths were within the theoretical calculation range, which could provide a theoretical calculation method for evaluating the effects of desert plant roots on riverbank soil shear strength. Keywords Shear strength . Desert plant roots . Root-soil composite . Mechanical model . Tarim River
Introduction Shallow soil erosion, slope instability, and soil erosion are the largest ecological and environmental problems in nowadays China. These problems are more serious in the desert environment of Northwest, China. The Tarim River is the largest inland river in China. It is also a confluent river in the Tarim basin, which is located in arid inland area with little rainfall, and has a lack of water resources and a fragile ecological environment. The soil erosion in the main channel of the Tarim River is severe owing to the lack of embankment control projects. During the flood season (from June to September), the overflowing river extends from 400 to 500 km, and the overflow width is typically from 3 to 5 km, with
Editorial handling: Zeynal Abiddin Erguler * Quanli Zong [email protected] 1
School of Resource and Environment, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China
2
College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832000, China
the widest reaches covering more than 20 km. The total area of the overflow is from 3000 to 5000 km2, and the water consumption in a wet year can be as much as 20 to 30 billion m3 (Hu et al. 2005). The intensification of soil erosion and the deterioration of the ecological environment have spawned ecological environment construction projects focusing on vegetation. It is well known tha
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