Modeling of soil displacement and soil strain distribution under a traveling wheel

The empirical Gaussian-based mathematical model of the soil displacement increment under a traveling wheel was extended to be applicable to any depth of soil layer under the ground contact surface of the wheel. The unknown coefficients were obtained by least mean-square fitting with the soil displacement curve measured through a sophisticated laboratory soil bin test. Those coefficients were then re-derived as a function of depth. The movement of soil particles at the ground contact surface was modeled by dividing movement into two kinds; first, the free movement of soil particles before contact with the wheel and the movement of the particles after they are separated from the wheel surface and, second, soil movement during attachment to the wheel surface. By combining the models for the ground contact surface of the wheel with that for all soil layers, an extended model that can describe soil displacement increment in both vertical and horizontal directions using one equation was established. The predicted results obtained using the extended model fitted quite well with the measured values. The predicted strain increment distributions also show the same trends as the measured distributions.

► The soil displacement under a traveling wheel was classified to three parts. ► There was the ground contact surface, soil surface without contact and underground. ► Soil particles at the contact surface moved to the direction of the wheel surface. ► Two displacement models were combined to singular model based on Gaussian function. ► Calculated soil strain distributions were suited well with the experiment results.