Title: Investigating the effects of off-road vehicles on soil compaction using FEA-SPH simulation

Authors: Fatemeh Gheshlaghi; Aref Mardani; Arash Mohebbi

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, Urmia University, Nazloo Road, 571531177, Urmia, Iran ' Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, Urmia University, Nazloo Road, 571531177, Urmia, Iran ' Department of Mechanical Engineering of Biosystems, Urmia University, Nazloo Road, 571531177, Urmia, Iran

Abstract: The study of terrain-tyre interaction using simulation methods allows for accurate prediction of parameters such as soil density and rut depth which are either time-consuming and expensive or inaccessible with experimental methods. This research focuses to predict and evaluate the soil compaction after off-road tyre traffic in different vertical loads on the tyre. Soil-tyre interaction is simulated using the smoothed-particle hydrodynamics-finite element analysis (SPH-FEA) techniques in Pam-crash software. In order to evaluate the simulation model, tests were conducted using a single-wheel tester in soil storage with different numbers of the pass and various loads. Soil density and rut depth were measured and compared with the simulation data. The results indicate that the tests and simulation data are in a good agreement with the coefficient of determination of 0.94. The tyre with higher pass number makes greater rut depth and consequent soil density. The intensity of soil compaction due to vehicle weight is discussed in the results.

Keywords: tyre-soil interaction modelling; rut depth; soil density; FEA; finite element analysis; smoothed-particle hydrodynamics; tester.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2021.117505

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2021 Vol.28 No.3, pp.455 - 466

Received: 04 Sep 2019
Accepted: 08 Oct 2019
Published online: 10 Sep 2021 *

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