Mechanical Characteristics of Peanut Root System and its Tribological Properties against Soil

Peanut root of crop lands in Menglianggu watershed in the upper reaches of Yi River were classified into different diameter classes by root diameter. The results show that (1) the relationship between force of pullout or breaking and root diameter is approximately linearity, and more significant linear for the latter; (2) Laboratory tests confirm the presence of a threshold or range of root diameter. When the diameter within the range (1.80-3.01mm), both root breaking and pullout occurred; when the diameter above 3.01mm, all roots broke under applied stress. While below 1.80mm, only roots were pulled out under applied stress. Root-soil resistance characteristic and root reinforcement effect were analyzed for different root classes: (3) pull out force of root-soil resistance is stronger than that of single root of the same root classes with the range from 6.03% to 39.39%.