Analytical Model for the Load-Bearing Capacity Analysis of Winter Forest Roads: Experiment and Estimation
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
General remarks
1. The title of the article does not match the content of the article at all (it should be changed).
2. The article does not analyze the bearing capacity of forest roads (pavement structures), but only the parameters of selected types of soil (e.g. sandy loam soil, line 115), which are not used for road surfaces in marshy areas (swamps).
3. Tests of strength parameters for a frozen soil sample with dimensions of 55x39x280 mm by a point load (it is not known what area) in no way corresponds to the load (contact area and impact) of the vehicle wheels on the structural layers of the pavement and on this basis modeling its damage. Please see e.g. AASHTO research. Of course, there are laboratory tests of load capacity and strength of samples of road pavement structures, such as the CBR method or the Proktor method. In the literature on the impact of the load from the vehicle wheels on the pavement (force distribution, etc.), this issue is widely described (Figure 2 is very general and redundant in this form).
4. The text contains many statements for which the literature is not cited or which were not the subject of research and analysis (e.g. lines 44-46, 75-79 etc.).
5. In the laboratory tests, a sample of the pavement structure was not tested, but the frozen soil.
Technical Notes:
1. The abstract should be revised and include the purpose, scope, main methodological assumptions and the most important results.
2. Figure 1 adds nothing to the article (should be deleted).
3. The FWD-Falling Weight Deflectome test is a quick test and it is not necessary to close forest roads to traffic, on which the traffic intensity is low. At the same time, FWD measurements are not suitable for the assessment of aggregate pavement (and even more so, natural soils), and are performed on concrete and asphalt roads.
4. The correctness of quoting literature in the text (e.g. line 80, 83, 128 etc.).
5. The purpose of the work and scope must be changed.
6. Captions under the drawings (language e.g. fig. 5), descriptions do not match the drawing (e.g. fig. 7).
7. The methodology needs to be completed. Many text fragments from the results have to be transferred to the methodology. Please state how many measurements have been made and how many samples have been used in the laboratory tests.
8. Text excerpts in Russian (Cyrillic).
9. The "soil moisture of forest roads 13%" (line 226) is doubtful, especially sandy loam soil during autumn and winter.
10. It is not true that low-quality land is used to build forest roads (lines 382-385). Good materials are used in forest road construction - road aggregates - just like in other roads with a specific composition and parameters.
11. The chapter "Results" requires radical changes.
12. The chapter "Discussion" requires changes, because, as mentioned earlier, the road pavement structure was not analyzed (but only the native soil), which consequently causes the need to change conclusions.
13. In the reference list, the descriptions of parts of the items need to be corrected in line with the requirements of the MDPI publishing house.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Based on the previous prediction model of forest road carrying capacity, a new theoretical model for winter forest road was established and verified in this paper.The model adopts the idea of real mechanical and mathematical models to establish an innovative load-displacement model which is different from the previous stress-deformation model. The established model does not need the accurate characteristics of these soils, and eliminates the test of prior knowledge of crack characteristics, simplifying the traditional model.The theoretical data of the model are compared with the experimental data of the known literature, and the validity of the model is proved.
The key words need to be revised ，which do not reflect the central meaning of the article. Most of the logging operation roads are off-road roads, and the soil contains more humus. The sandy soil is used as the experimental object in this paper, which has certain deviation from the reality.
Author Response
- The keywords need to be revised, which do not reflect the central meaning of the article.
Answer: The keywords have been revised.
- Most of the logging operation roads are off-road roads, and the soil contains more humus.
Answer: The established model does not need precise characteristics of these soils, simplifying the traditional model. Therefore, the model can be applied to frozen soil that contains organic components.
- As an experimental object in this work, sandy soil is used, which has a certain deviation from reality.
Answer: Testing of sandy soil is to a certain extent a compromise that allowed us to assess the adequacy of the model and specify the direction of further research to improve the model in relation to winter forest roads.
- The authors agree that careful editing of the English language and style is required. Therefore, the authors will contact the English editing of MDPI.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors did not take into account the majority of the substantive comments of the reviewer.
The authors' explanations are laconic and unacceptable to the reviewer. (np. The authors do not have a consensus on the need ....)Author Response
Responses to the reviewer's comments
1. The authors did not take into account the majority of the substantive comments of the reviewer.
The authors' explanations are laconic and unacceptable to the reviewer. (np. The authors do not have a consensus on the need ....)
Response: The authors thank reviewer for the analysis of the manuscript and recommendations for improving this work. The authors realized that the answers were excessively brief, and ask to be excused for this excessive brevity of the answers. Following the recommendations of the reviewer, the authors repeatedly discussed possible changes in the title of the manuscript, but could not find the best version of the title. Perhaps we needed more specific recommendations. We will definitely take into account all the comments of the reviewer in further work.
Taking into account all the circumstances, the authors agree with the decision of the editorial board regarding this manuscript.
To mitigate the problem, the authors turned to the English edition of MDPI with a request for professional editing of the manuscript by a native English speaker; this work has been completed, and we gratefully accept the results of this important work.
2. Moderate changes in English are required.
Response: The authors agree that editing of the manuscript in English is required. This work was carried out:
Title: Analytical model for the analysis of the bearing capacity of winter forest roads: experiment and evaluation
Length in words: 5200
Edit ID in English: English-50385
MDPI Manuscript ID: forests-1890899
