A novel approach is proposed for the modeling of rigid-wheel and soft-soil interaction to efficiently compute normal and shear stress distributions in the contact area. The authors propose a velocity field in the vicinity of the contact area based on the physical nature of the problem. Thereupon, the incremental changes to the stress field are computed by resorting to elastoplasticity theory and an appropriate already existing constitutive relation for soil. The proposed approach leads to results that agree well with those obtained using well-established terramechanics models, while addressing some of their shortcomings. In addition, the proposed approach uses generalized velocities of the wheel as inputs, which makes it compatible with dynamic models of multibody systems. The dynamic slip-sinkage behavior of the wheel and the semielliptical shape of the normal stress distribution under the wheel are natural outcomes of the proposed model. Experimental investigation under various ranges of wheel slippage shows good agreement with the data available in the literature.

A novel approach is proposed for the modeling of rigid-wheel and soft-soil interaction using infinitesimal plasticity theory. Our motivation is the need to have a model compatible with dynamic models of multibody systems. The idea is to use a prescribed velocity field in the vicinity of the contact area based on the physics of the problem, and find the changes in the stress field by resorting to plasticity theory and an appropriate constitutive relation for soil. In this paper the Drucker-Prager constitutive relation with cap hardening is employed. The proposed approach leads to results that tally with those obtained using well-established semi-empirical models. The calibration of the semi-empirical model parameters is done by performing simulation runs using detailed FEM models with the Abaqus/Explicit software package.