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| Url | https://cimne.com/sgp/rtd/Project.aspx?id=936 | ||
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| Acronym | REROOT | ||
| Project title | REalistic models or soil-ROOT mechanical interaction | ||
| Reference | TED2021-131426B-I00 | ||
| Principal investigator |
Josep Maria CARBONELL PUIGBÓ - cpuigbo@cimne.upc.edu
Marcos ARROYO ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO - marcos.arroyo@upc.edu |
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| Start date | 01/12/2022 | End date | 31/05/2025 |
| Coordinator | CIMNE | ||
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| Program | P.E. para Impulsar la Investigación Científico-Técnica y su Transferencia | Call | Proyectos Estratégicos Orientados a la Transición Ecológica y a la Transición Digital» 2021 |
| Subprogram | Subprograma Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento | Category | Nacional |
| Funding body(ies) | MICINN | Grant | $197,685.00 |
| Abstract | Climate change is likely to stress significantly the basic transport infrastructures and the built environment of Spain, as well as that of many other countries. This stress will take the form of a more arid, erratic and storm-prone weather pattern. A consequence of such weather pattern is an increase on the likelihood of slope stability problems along transport infrastructures. Current remediation technologies for slope stability problems are all very carbon-intensive, involving materials such as crushed rockfill, concrete and steel. It is thus increasingly urgent to develop and apply low-carbon stabilization measures amongst which the use of vegetation as a stabilizing agent is particularly attractive, as vegetation by itself is a carbon sink. In ground bio-engineering living plant material is employed to perform engineering functions. While bio-engineering is well accepted for erosion control, its potential for stabilization of gravity-driven mass movements has not yet been fully exploited. Vegetation contributes to slope stability through their roots, both through direct mechanical reinforcement and through suction-mediated hydraulic effects. Quantifying soil-root interaction is difficult, because the mechanics is complex (hydromechanical coupling and large strain aspects are fundamental) but also because acquiring systematic experimental data is slow due to soil and root variability and root geometrical complexity. It is proven to be complex to stablish specific statements of design reliability and/or quantitative statements of risk reduction and quantitative assessment of the beneficial effects of vegetation on stability. This proposal combines experimental work and numerical simulation to address the fundamental issues besetting the study of root-soil interaction. The objectives of this project are 1) develop, validate and demonstrate a new computational open-source platform for modelling soil-root interaction that will be versatile (including different conceptual models of soil-root interaction now in use), powerful (including both mechanical and hydraulic effects) and computationally efficient (because based on our extensively tested previous work on soil-structure interaction) 2) perform multi-scale targeted experiments with model roots and living plants that clarify the connection between hydraulic and mechanical reinforcement effects. The proposal has been organized around three Work Packages, corresponding to three different types of activities: those oriented to improve the simulation capabilities of root-soil systems, those oriented to contribute new experimental data and those oriented to disseminate this technology amongst the Spanish engineering community. | ||
| Proyecto TED2021-131426B-I00 financiado por MICIU/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión EuropeaNextGenerationEU/ PRTR | |||