General Yield Conditions in a Plasticity Analysis of Soil-Wheel Interaction

Abstract

Plasticity theory and a general representation of the Mohr failure criterion are applied to the problem of soil-wheel interaction. Load, drawbar pull (or drag), torque are computed for a rigid wheel being driven on sand obtained from Jones Beach, Long Island, New York. Analytical results obtained from soutions using a conventional Mohr-Coulcomb linear failure envelope are compared to those obtained from a nonlinear solution. Conclusions are drawn from the comparison that attest the importance of considering the nonlinearity of failure envelopes in certain cases for accuracy of soil-wheel interaction prediction. Preliminary experimental results show reasonable agreement with predicted values of wheel performance parameters.