Predicting Natural Anchoring from Roots to Landscapes Through Laboratory Experiments and Reduced-order Modeling
Abstract
Plant roots act as natural soil anchors in a wide variety of landscapes, stabilizing riverbanks and coasts against erosion, reducing the likelihood of landslides, and slowing soil creep. Plants are therefore used in land management to prevent erosion and mitigate natural hazards on engineered and natural slopes. Despite the pervasive effects of root anchoring on landscapes, there is not yet a comprehensive theory for describing anchoring mechanisms and predicting anchoring forces. The proposed research will develop a new framework for predicting anchoring forces in cohesive, granular soils through a combination of laboratory experiments and model development. The project will consist of five tasks: Task 1: Laboratory experiments to measure the forces on simple objects moving through cohesive, granular soil. Task 2: Laboratory experiments to measure the forces required to uproot synthetic root systems. Task 3: Development of a continuum model for cohesive soil that can match the results of the laboratory experiments. Task 4: Development of a new cohesive resistive force theory (RFT) that can match the results of the laboratory experiments while offering enhanced simplicity and efficiency. Task 5: Development of a framework for predicting uprooting forces in arrays of multiple plants, drawing on continuum models and RFT. The outcome will be a dramatically improved understanding of the fundamental physics of natural anchoring, which will lay the groundwork for more robust models of the strength of vegetated landscapes. This advance requires a collaboration between geoscientists who study soil and erosion under widely varying natural and experimental conditions, and mechanicians who develop theoretical and computational models of granular physics. The new understanding of anchoring will influence fields as diverse as engineering, ecology, and hazard management. The new modeling tools and experimental data will extend to other scenarios that involve objects interacting with soils, including biological or robotic locomotion, tunneling by animals or machines, off-road vehicle design, and dynamic penetration or impacts. The project will address the ARL competencies Mechanical Sciences and Sciences of Extreme Materials. This abstract is available for public release during the evaluation phase and should an award be made afterward.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 24, 2023
- Source ID
- W911NF2310227
Entities
People
- J. Taylor Perron
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- United States Army