Effect of soil particle-size distribution (PSD) on soil-subsoiler interactions in the discrete element model

Xuezhen Wang,Wuquan Wei,Yuxiang Huang,Jinpu He

doi:10.5424/sjar/2021191-16584

Abstract

Aim of study: This work investigated the significance and mechanism for the effect of particle-size distribution (PSD) under different nominal radii using the discrete element method (DEM) and validated using the laboratory soil-bin results to accurately determine PSD.Area of study: Yangling, ChinaMaterial and methods: The experimental soil was Lou soil. Soil disturbance characteristics (soil rupture distance ratio, height of accumulated soil, soil density change rate) and cutting forces (draft and vertical) under different treatments were predicted and measured respectively.Main results: The ANOVA outputs showed that PSD significantly affected draft and vertical forces (p

Highlights

Modelling of soil-tool interaction allows to gain an in-depth understanding of tool performance and optimise soil engaging tools without performing expensive and time-consuming field tests (Fielke, 1999; Shmulevich et al, 2007; Ucgul et al, 2014a)
For models with particles of any given nominal radius examined, with the variation of particle-size distribution (PSD), the lowest relative error for the predicted hs was less than 6.9% and the highest relative error was larger than 13.1%, as compared with the measured results
For the models with particles of smaller nominal radii, there was no statistical differences detected in simulated soil disturbance behaviors (m, hs and P) over the entire range of PSD examined due to high standard deviations or good agreement with that measured (Zhang & Chen, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Modelling of soil-tool interaction allows to gain an in-depth understanding of tool performance and optimise soil engaging tools without performing expensive and time-consuming field tests (Fielke, 1999; Shmulevich et al, 2007; Ucgul et al, 2014a). For 2D DEM, real soil particle sizes can be used and the accuracy of the simulation results can be high (Ucgul et al, 2014b), for instance the modelling of the soil loosening process caused by a vibrating subsoiler by Tanaka et al (2000); the modelling of the cutting blades by Zhang. In 3D DEM, using real soil particle sizes is not practical due to much larger number of the particles required to assembly a soil bin and the computational limitations. To gain solutions in a timely manner, many 3D DEM studies selected particles larger than the particle sizes found in soil (Chen et al, 2013; Ucgul et al, 2014a; Hang et al, 2018; Li et al, 2018; Tamas, 2018)

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