Numerical simulation and validation test of direct shear test for root-soil composite of Hedysarum scoparium using finite element method

Plant roots have considerable impact on the shear properties of soil, but to date the underlying mechanisms have been poorly quantified. In order to understand the fundamental mechanisms of soil reinforcement by Hedysarum scoparium roots and reduce the cost of the testing and relieve the destruction of environment due to digging roots, five-year plant specimens were collected from the Gaoshawo forest field (Northwest China) by in-situ excavation in this study. The shear properties of root-soil composite of Hedysarum scoparium were studied by the finite-element numerical simulation software. The influence of the root area ratio (RAR) and the vertical load on the shear strength of root-soil composite of Hedysarum scoparium was discussed in this study. The laboratory direct shear test was used to prove the reliability of the numerical simulation under the condition of the 7% soil moisture content and the RAR of 0.0034. The results showed that the shear strength of roots-soil composite conformed to the Mohr-Coulomb's yield criterion and the roots of Hedysarum scoparium could notably enhance the soil shear strength. It was also found that a strong correlation between the RAR and the root apparent cohesion. The root apparent cohesion increased with the increasing of the RAR according to a linear function (R2>0.9). Under the same RAR, the capacity of soil reinforcement by the roots was weakened with the increase of the vertical load, and a logarithmic function (R2>0.9) could be used to describe the relationship between the shear strength growth rate of root-soil composite to pure soil and the vertical load. Under the same vertical load, the growth rate of shear strength of root-soil composite to pure soil decreased linearly with the decreasing of the RAR (R2>0.9). The roots of Hedysarum scoparium played an obvious role to reinforce soil under the low vertical loads. The results of the study indicated that the peak value of the shear stress of root-soil composite of Hedysarum scoparium appeared later compared with that of pure soil. It implied that the root reinforcement did not occur until the significant plastic deformation appeared. Therefore, the roots seemed to have little influence on soil reinforcement for small strains acting on soil-root composite. The numerical simulation results were consistent with the results of laboratory test (the maximum relative error was only 4.26%). It was found that an increase in the vertical load of root-soil composite of Hedysarum scoparium made the contribution of roots to the shear strength increment of root-soil composite decrease. The differences of the cohesion stress and friction angle of root-soil composite of Hedysarum scoparium were only 0.6179 kPa and 0.0039° respectively based on the fitting equation between the vertical load and the shear strength. The fitting equation was developed from the numerical simulation and the laboratory direct shear test results. This paper presented a numerical simulation model capable of simulating the direct shear of root-soil composite of Hedysarum scoparium. The numerical simulation results could serve as the basis and reference for further studies on shear characteristics of root-soil composite.