{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,12]],"date-time":"2026-09-12T03:14:26Z","timestamp":1789182866922,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,5]],"date-time":"2024-01-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1704412800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002888","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["32071841"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32071841"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002888","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002888","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["31700637"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31700637"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002888","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Beijing Municipal Education Commission","award":["32071841"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32071841"]}]},{"name":"Beijing Municipal Education Commission","award":["31700637"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31700637"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Materials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>A large alpine meadow in a seasonal permafrost zone exists in the west of Sichuan, which belongs to a part of the Qinghai\u2013Tibet Plateau, China. Due to the extreme climates and repeated freeze\u2013thaw cycling, resulting in a diminishment in soil shear strength, disasters occur frequently. Plant roots increase the complexity of the soil freeze\u2013thaw strength problem. This study applied the freeze\u2013thaw cycle and direct shear tests to investigate the change in the shear strength of root-soil composite under freeze\u2013thaw cycles. This study examined how freeze\u2013thaw cycles and initial moisture content affect the shear strength of two sorts of soil: uncovered soil and root-soil composite. By analyzing the test information, the analysts created numerical conditions to foresee the shear quality of both sorts of soil under shifting freeze\u2013thaw times and starting moisture levels. The results showed that: (1) Compared to the bare soil, the root-soil composite was less affected by freeze\u2013thaw cycles in the early stage, and the shear strength of both sorts of soil was stabilized after 3\u20135 freeze\u2013thaw cycles. (2) The cohesion of bare soil decreased more than that of root-soil composite with increasing moisture content. However, freeze\u2013thaw cycles primarily influence soil cohesion more than the internal friction angle. The cohesion modification leads to changes in shear quality for both uncovered soil and root-soil composite. (3) The fitting equations obtained via experiments were used to simulate direct shear tests. The numerical results are compared with the experimental data. The difference in the soil cohesion and root-soil composite cohesion between the experiment data and the simulated result is 8.2% and 17.2%, respectively, which indicates the feasibility of the fitting equations applied to the numerical simulation of the soil and root-soil composite under the freeze\u2013thaw process. The findings give potential applications on engineering and disaster prevention in alpine regions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ma17020285","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,5]],"date-time":"2024-01-05T10:06:43Z","timestamp":1704449203000},"page":"285","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Effect of Freeze\u2013Thaw Cycles on the Shear Strength of Root-Soil Composite"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Qi","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Soil and Water Conservation, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"Three-Gorges Reservoir Area (Chongqing) Forest Ecosystem Research Station, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiankun","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Soil and Water Conservation, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"Three-Gorges Reservoir Area (Chongqing) Forest Ecosystem Research Station, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhiwei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Soil and Water Conservation, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"Three-Gorges Reservoir Area (Chongqing) Forest Ecosystem Research Station, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gongming","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Soil and Water Conservation, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"Three-Gorges Reservoir Area (Chongqing) Forest Ecosystem Research Station, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qunou","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of State Forestry Administration on Soil and Water Conservation, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lanhua","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Energy Saving & Environmental Protection & Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute, China Academy of Railway Science Co., Ltd., Beijing 100081, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Inam","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1375","article-title":"Physico-mechanical properties of the sandstones and effect of salt crystallization on them: A comparative study between stable and unstable slopes (a case study of the Khorramabad-Zal highway in Iran)","volume":"17","author":"Pirizadeh","year":"2022","journal-title":"Case Stud. 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