On modeling a rolling wheel in the presence of plastic deformation as a three- or two-dimensional process

This paper compares predictions of deformation and horizontal (drag) force resulting from three- and two-dimensional numerical simulation of a torque-free (towed) wheel operating on ductile material. The finite-element code ABAQUS/Explicit is used to simulate a complete process beginning with wheel indentation and ending, if admissible, with steady rolling. The wheel is rigid, and the material is modeled as elastic/perfectly plastic with the von Mises yield condition, with focus on plastic rather than elastic effects. It is shown that two-dimensional analysis of a rolling wheel cannot readily be applied to a narrow wheel to predict wheel penetration, although horizontal forces from three- and two- dimensional simulations follow a similar trend. In particular, it is observed that steady-state penetration is constant over a range of applied vertical forces in the two-dimensional analysis, whereas steady-state penetration is an increasing function of vertical force for narrow wheels simulated in three dimensions. This illustrates potential errors in simplifying wheel rolling by utilizing two-dimensional analysis and the necessity of considering a fully three-dimensional process. In the paper, the latter is investigated in detail.