EAPSI: Analysis of Soil Deformation during Loading of a Plant Root-Inspired Foundation using X-ray Computed Tomography

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The overarching goal of the proposed research is to gain insight for the development of a bio-inspired plant root foundation. This will require the researcher to investigate how the roots of plants anchor the plant in the soil and how they resist external loads such as pullout from herbivores, compression from self-weight and rain or bending from high winds. Consequently, if a conventional building foundation can be enhanced to improve their efficiency in terms of volume of material used, the structure will not only cost less, but will require less concrete and steel, which has many environmental implications. This project will be conducted at the Port and Airport Research Institute in Yokosuka, Japan under the guidance of Dr. Satoshi Matsumura. In particular, the research seeks to analyze the soil displacement field when a root analog, fabricated using 3D printing, is loaded under tension or compression. The disturbed soil zone will be characterized by using a particle tracking image analysis scheme, where 3D images will be acquired at set increments during the loading process. Additionally, knowledge of the surface failure during tensile loading and the region contributing to the bearing capacity of the soil during root compression will serve to inform analytical models to predict the capacity of the root foundations under the two loading conditions. Furthermore, this project seeks to develop a fundamental understanding of the mechanical behavior of buried plant root-type systems at the particle level, which can then be easily expanded to field-scale applications.This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is funded jointly by NSF and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.