Modeling Hydromechanical Reinforcement of Vegetation to Improve the Stability of a Shallow Slope
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TECHNOLOGY AND WORK PRODUCTION MODELING HYDROMECHANICAL REINFORCEMENT OF VEGETATION TO IMPROVE THE STABILITY OF A SHALLOW SLOPE
UDC 624.131.537 Yang Yang,1 Chao Su,2* Mingjiao Yan,4 Qingsong Duan3 1 Power China Kunming Engineering Corporation Ltd., Kunming, China; 2College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China; 3 Water Conservancy College, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China; 4Institute of Civil Engineering, Shanxi Technology and Business College, Taiyuan, China, *Corresponding author Email: [email protected].
This study investigated hydromechanical reinforcement on the stability of a vegetated slope. A test of root tensile strength was conducted to assess the root cohesion. Using the 2D finite element method, we quantified the hydromechanical effects of plants on the slope stability in terms of the factor of safety (FOS) and matric suction. Our results show that plants could increase the soil suction to improve the stability of the slope, and a longer drying process would achieve a higher matric suction and FOS. Hydrological reinforcement was three times greater than mechanical reinforcement for the contribution of FOS. The rainfall infiltration led to a decrease in the FOS and matric suction.
1. Introduction Installing vegetation on slopes is widely recognized as an environmentally friendly engineering method to improve slope stability. Vegetation can reinforce a slope via mechanical reinforcement as well as hydrological reinforcement (transpiration) [1, 2]. The present study primarily focus on mechanical reinforcement of vegetated slopes [3-6]. For example, plant roots are effective at providing added tensile strength to improve the shear strength of root-soil [7]. Studies have been completed using the root tensile strength test [8] and the in-situ shear test [9] to evaluate the shear strength of root-soil. These tests revealed that the root system significantly increases the shear strength of root-soil. Moreover, some studies investigated the stability of a vegetated slope by considering root cohesion (cr) in terms of the factor of safety (FOS) [6, 10, 11]. The results of these studies reveal that roots can improve the stability of a shallow slope. Previous studies have investigated hydrological reinforcement of vegetation on the stability of a slope. Hydrological reinforcement by transpiration has been shown to be essential to the stability of slopes. Plant roots can absorb water through photosynthesis and respiration, and as a result, the soil surrounding the plant roots become dry, which induces soil suction [12]. Pollen-Bankhead and Simon [13] suggested that the mechanical reinforcement of slopes increases the FOS by 25%, while hydrological reinforcement significantly increases the FOS by 52%. Ng et al. [14] discovered that neglecting the effects of transpiration before rainfall would lead to a drop in the FOS by up to 50%. These findings support the idea that mechanical and hydrological reinforcement of vegetation can improve slope stability. To bette
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