New Geotechnical Engineering Study Findings Recently Were Reported by Researchers at University of Western Ontario (Windthrow Resistance of Trees: Geotechnical Engineering Approach): Engineering – Geotechnical Engineering

2024 APR 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Engineering Daily News -- New research on Engineering - Geotechnical Engineering is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from London, Canada, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Failure of trees in high winds is of interest to a broad array of stakeholders: foresters, meteorologists, homeowners, insurance industry, parks and recreation management. Equally broad is the array of disciplines that contribute to understanding windthrow failure of trees: aerodynamics, forest management sciences, biomechanics, tree biology, and geotechnical engineering.”

Financial support for this research came from CGIAR.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Western Ontario, “This paper proposes a mechanistic model for assessing the windthrow failure of trees from a geotechnical engineering perspective. The model assumes a homogenized tree root-soil structure enclosed within a cylindrical volume characterizing the root spread and depth. The model predicts the anchorage resistance of a soil-root system by estimating the uprooting resistance of an equivalent circular footing using a 3D load failure envelope with a rotated parabolic ellipsoid shape. The proposed model was validated using the UK Forest Research Tree Pulling Database (UTPD) with 1239 conifer trees of six common species. The results show that the model successfully predicts the windthrow resistance of various tree species and sizes for different soil states. The soil type and state significantly affected the uprooting resistance, with the effective soil unit weight and water table depth being key soil parameters controlling tree anchorage. Conversely, soil friction angle and soil cohesion have only a modest influence on tree anchorage. The influence of desaturation due to negative pore water pressures was also investigated and found to have a significant effect on the uprooting resistance.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Although the model shows promise, the paper concludes that further improvements could be made in form and calibration, as discussed in the paper.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Windthrow Resistance of Trees: Geotechnical Engineering Approach. Trees, 2024. Trees can be contacted at: Springer Heidelberg, Tiergartenstrasse 17, D-69121 Heidelberg, Germany.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Timothy Newson, University of Western Ontario, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, London, On, Canada. Additional authors for this research include Mohamed A. Mansour and Chris J. Peterson.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-024-02488-8. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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