ISSN 2319-5347, ISI Impact Factor: 0.763

VOLUME 06 NO. 02 JULY 2017:

Title:          Strengthening of Slope by using Banyan Tree as Biotechnological Improvement
Authors:    Md. Kumruzzaman, Niloy Samadder, S. M. Anisul Islam
Abstract:   Embankments play a significant role in protecting cities from many natural disasters. Erosion and landslides of embankments and natural slopes are common phenomena in occurring every year in Bangladesh. It has become a great concern of protecting embankments and natural slopes from failure. In many cases, traditional methods for protecting embankments and natural slopes are not effective during their designed lives. In such a condition, biotechnology has been adopted in many countries as an effective and environment friendly measure for the protection of slopes. The role played by vegetation in improving slope stability is now well recognized. Many research works have been done in many countries on many species of trees that are locally available and suitable for the climatic and soil conditions of that country. In this study, an attempt has been made to evaluate the performance of banyan tree in protecting the Rajshahi City Protection embankment. In-situ direct shear test was performed on block samples to determine the in-situ shear strength of banyan rooted soil and soil without root. Laboratory tests were carried out to evaluate the engineering properties of soil and roots of banyan tree. A numerical analysis has been also performed to compute the factor of safety and shear strength of slope soil with root and without root. Another numerical analysis has also been performed to evaluate the performance of banyan tree root in protecting embankment under seismic load by LEM. It has been found that in all cases the experimental and numerical values of soil rooted with banyan tree is satisfactorily higher than the soil without root. It appears that banyan tree may be a low-cost and environment friendly alternative solution for the protection of embankment in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Slope, Shear strength, Tensile strength, Banyan tree, Factor of Safety, LEM, Seismic analysis.
Pages:        69-76

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