Small-scale physical modelling of trees subject to cyclic and monotonic loading
Small-scale physical modelling of trees subject to cyclic and monotonic loading
The push-over behaviour of trees under extreme loading associated with natural hazards is important in Forestry and Civil Engineering. Strong winds can damage stands of commercial timber and blow down trees which block transport infrastructure or damage overhead power and telecommunication lines. Debris flows may also load trees located on steep slopes next to transport infrastructure. This paper will present results from a preliminary 1-g physical modelling study of 3D-printed tree root systems subjected to cyclic and/or monotonic load histories. Appropriate scaling laws are first established to account for stress-level on soil dilatancy and peak strength through comparison of 1-g and centrifuge test data. Subsequently, behaviour under one-way cyclic loading representative of wind loading (pre-conditioning/shake-down), followed by monotonic push-over (representative of extreme events). The direction of these loads relative to each other is varied to consider different idealised field scenarios. The results indicate that prior cyclic loading can influence moment capacity depending on the relative directionality of cyclic to monotonic loading. Directionality is less significant for rotational stiffness evolution, which appears to universally increase with continued cyclic loading tend. These findings have implications for physical and numerical modelling of tree pushover, risk assessment and for field evaluation of tree characteristics.
Jonathan A. Knappett; Georgi Ev; Xingyu Zhang; Matteo Oryem Ciantia
11th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ICPMG2026)
Special Session 8: Nature-based solution for sustainable geotechnical systems
https://doi.org/10.53243/ICPMG2026-71