Finite Element Method Study on Stress State in Soil Induced by Agricultural Traffic

Abstract

In general, when a tyre is running on a deformable soil, the soil compaction will occur not only on surface layers, but also on soil profile, in deeper layers. This leads to a series of negative effects not only on physical and mechanical properties of soil, but also influences the crops growth and the crop yield. For these reasons, currently are needed solutions to reduce soil compaction, caused mainly by agricultural implements passing on the soil surface in order to aply the specific crop production technologies. From our simulation we can draw the following conclusions: the soil stresses decreased with depth; the soil displacements magnitude increased with soil water content due to lower friction forces between soil particles (water acts like a lubricant between soil particles); decreasing rate for soil displacement is influenced by load magnitude and tyre inflation pressure; the soil particles moved in vertical plain from the top to the bottom, but also in horizontal direction, from the center to the edge in cross section and in longitudinal direction; the dimensions of the geometric shape of the mentioned soil volume is influenced by load and tyre inflation pressure. In this paper the agricultural traffic and its influence on stress state in soil, it was used a software application based on Finite Element Method, that has been proved to be a useful tool for soil compaction assessment in order to find the right decisions for a proper field traffic management.

Keywords

• agricultural traffic, Finite Element Method, soil compaction, soil induced stresses.