Soil stabilization properties of flexible intruders

Abstract

In many locations, soil is held in place by the roots of plants. When these plants are removed or die, the soil loses its cohesive strength and erodes away. We seek to create artificial soil stabilizers that use the same physical principles as the plant roots. To investigate how flexible materials can stabilize soil, we use photoelastic particles to analyze the forces within a system when a flexible intruder is introduced to the system. We report on the increase in system forces as an effect of the flexible intruder and compare it to experiments with plant roots. Since soil is a granular material, using this method to increase the forces within patches of soil may help prevent erosion or landslides.