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Advanced Structures & Materials

Annual Plan

Tire–mud Interaction Modeled Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Finite Element

Project Team

Principal Investigator

Corina Sandu, Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech Alba Yerro-Colom, Virginia Tech

Government

Katherine Sebeck, David Gorsich, U.S. Army GVSC

Industry

Vinita Kumari, John Deere

Student

Varsha Swamy, Destiny Mason, Jasleen Kaur Bheora, Rashna Pandit, Chaitanya Sonalkar, Virginia Tech

Project Summary

Project #3.22 began 2022 and was completed end-2025.

This project tackles the mobility of ground vehicles on wet or saturated cohesive soils (mud). Military vehicles, agricultural vehicles, and earthmoving vehicles operate in such hostile conditions very often. An accurate mud model, to account for the effect of the water in the pores in cohesive fine-grained soils, clays in particular, is not available. Clay is a cohesive, plastic material with strain-rate effects. The strength of clay in wet conditions might extremely decrease when subjected to rapid shear loading of the tire, leading to large deformations and eventually leading to liquid-like behavior and hydroplaning. This project proposes to study such large deformation tire–mud interaction by physics-based numerical modeling using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Finite Element Analysis (SPH-FEA) to support the effort of the Army in modeling virtual proving grounds.

terramechanics rig at VT and tire-soil interaction model rendering

The fundamental research questions are: a) How to model and parameterize saturated cohesive soil using feasible experiments? b) What are the short-term and long-term effects of the water in the pores when a tire passes? c) How would the tire-mud interface be modeled? d) What is the effect of multipass? e) How will the tire’s performance be at different slip ratios, accelerating and braking? f) How close are the simulation results to traction tests?

To address these questions systematically, the following are the research objectives:

  1. Characterization of wet clay and tire-clay interaction through small-scale testing
  2. Development and validation of wet clay SPH model for short-term effects
  3. Development and validation of wet clay SPH model for long-term effects
  4. Development and validation of tire-mud models for short/long-term effects using SPH-FEM
  5. Experimental validation of the tire-mud interaction model through large-scale testing and data collection on the terramechanics rig for traction performance
  6. High-speed vehicle validation of the tire-mud model
  7. Interfacing the model with other simulation platforms.
  8. The study of cornering, braking, and unleveled soil tests with multipass and pore water measurement

3.22

Publications:

  • Swamy, V. S., Pandit, R., Yerro, A., Sandu, C., Rizzo, D. M., Sebeck, K., & Gorsich, D. (2023). Review of modeling and validation techniques for tire-deformable soil interactions. Journal of Terramechanics, 109, 73-92.

  • Swamy, V. S., Yerro, A., Sandu, C., Pandit, R., Gorsich, D., & Sebeck, K. (2025). Numerical analysis of tire mobility on deformable plastic clay in saturated conditions using total and effective stress frameworks. Journal of Terramechanics, 117, 101024.

  • Swamy, V.S., Pandit, R., Yerro-Colom, A., Sandu, C., Rizzo,D., and Sebeck, K. (2022). A review of modeling and validation techniques for Tire-Deformable soil interactions. Paper no. 7018, Proc. of The 11th Asia-Pacific International Conf. of the ISTVS, Sept. 26-28, Harbin, China.

  • Swamy, V. S., Ravichandran, N., Jasoliya, D., Vilsan, A., & Sandu, C. (2026). Terramechanics rig capabilities and illustrative applications of its use for the study of tires/wheels performance on ice and deformable soil. Journal of Terramechanics, 122, 101106.

  • Mason, D., Swamy, V.S., Sandu, C., Yerro, A., Sebeck, K., and Gorsich, D., 2024. “Assessing sensitivities of off-road pneumatic tire on clay: A finite element investigation on tire operational and design parameters”, Paper no. 3181, Proc. of 21st International and 12th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS, Oct. 28-31, 2024, Yokohama, Japan.

  • Bheora, J.K., Swamy, V.S., Mason, D., Yerro, A., Sandu, C., Sebeck, K., and Gorsich, D., 2024. “The role of tire-soil interface characteristics on performance parameters through experimental and numerical investigation”, Paper no. 4093, Proc. of 21st International and 12th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS, Oct. 28-31, 2024, Yokohama, Japan.