Cornering Performance Of Rigid Wheel In Granular Media Using Coarse-Scale Dem Models

Dickerson, A., Jelinek, B., Mason, G. L., Skorupa, T., Cole, M., & Priddy, J. (2025). Cornering Performance Of Rigid Wheel In Granular Media Using Coarse-Scale Dem Models. Proceedings of the 55th Conference of the ISTVS. Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA: ISTVS. DOI:10.56884/FV0FI0QP.

Abstract

Understanding interactions of wheels and tracks with granular media under variable loading conditions, including longitudinal and side slip, is critical for prediction of mobility for wheeled and tracked vehicles in off-road environments. The discrete element method (DEM) is routinely used for modeling interaction of soil with track and tires, but the method's accuracy needs to be better established. In this work, two DEM models from the Generic EDEM Material Model (GEMM) database from Altair®'s EDEM™ software package, which were identified (Jelinek et el. 2025) as the best match to physical experiments, are used to calculate tractive performance of a rigid wheel in sand under braked, towed, and powered conditions with side slip. The simulations follow the experiments by Shinone et al., 2010, examining a 165/60R13 wheel with constant circumferential velocity of 97.6 mm/s and vertical contact load of 980 N operating in powered conditions under forward slips in the range of -5.9% to 54.8%. The steady-state tractive forces on the wheel in sand were evaluated under the same forward slip conditions as in the experiment, except with added side slip of 3, 6, and 12 degrees. The side-slip effects on net traction, gross traction, and sinkage of the wheel in sand are evaluated by comparison with forward-slip-only results. Lateral forces and overturning moments were then calculated and compared with relevant relationships derived from physical measurement and other simulation methods. The results indicate a good match to experimental trends, encouraging further use and calibration of the DEM soil-wheel interaction models.