Abstract

This study aims to investigate the slope protection mechanism of roots. In ecological slope protection, plant roots can fix soil and protect slop through biological and mechanical action. However, previous studies on the slope protection mechanism are still not deep enough and inadequate. By taking four kinds of typical plant roots along Wu-Shen Expressway as the research object, through the indoor tensile test and root morphology observation analysis, the tensile strength and ultimate tension were studied and the influence to the stability of the slope was discussed in this study. The results show that the mean ultimate tension of roots is 7.19~29.96 N. The mean tension of shrub roots is 2~4 times greater than that of herb roots. The ultimate tension of the same plant roots increases with the diameter significantly. To the range of improvement, Shrub roots exceed herb ones. It also indicates that the mean tensile strength of roots are 24.48~74.25 MPa. Compared with the steel HRB235, the tensile strength of herb roots is as great as 1/5~1/3, while Shrub roots is about 1/10~1/5. The slope stability coefficient with plant growing is a positive correlation with roots tension and root number through the sliding surface and is a negative correlation with plants weight. In addition, the slope stability coefficient is related to plant density and root morphology. The test results demonstrate that the roots tension with acute angle or right angle to the landslide surface and the roots shear stiffness with obtuse angle can improve the performance of slope’s anti-slide. Four kinds of plants can improve the stability coefficient of shallow soil. As for the slope protection effect, herbage is superior to shrub. In general, grass-shrub mixed community is the ideal system for slope protection.

Keywords:

Slope protection, roots, stability coefficient, tensile test,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.