The Effect of Cellulose and Lignin Content on Tensile Strength of Tree Species

The root of trees is one of the most important living materials for stabilizing and reinforcing the cut and fill slopes of forest road. This study was conducted to investigate the tensile strength of tree species according to changes in lignin, cellulose and root extracts content.

Darabkola forest in the southeast of Sari-Iran was selected for this study. To determine the tensile strength of tree roots, root samples from tress including the beech, hornbeam, alder, Zelkova carpinifolia, Persian Ironwood and oak were collected by soil profile trenching method and then the test of tensile strength was performed. The amount of lignin, cellulose and ash for the roots of different tree species was also measured in the laboratory. One-way anova was used to compare the means of roots tensile strength and also multivariate analysis was used to classification of species based on cellulose, lignin, ash and other extracts content.

The results showed that in beech, alder and Persian Ironwood, the measured rates of lignin were higher than cellulose levels. While in the Zelkova carpinifolia, the amount of cellulose was higher than others parameters, in beech and alder species (with higher lignin rate) the means of tensile strength was recorded less than other species, and for oak and hornbeam with higher cellulose levels, tensile strength was recorded higher than other species. The results of multivariate analysis based on tensile strength and numerical values of root decomposition showed three groups with high adaptability percentage (alder-beech, hornbeam-Zelkova carpinifolia and Persian Ironwood-oak).

According to the results, investigating the amount of lignin and cellulose in roots of different species as well as discriminant analysis with consideration of different factors can be a scientific method to select best species for soil bioengineering projects.