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Cranfield University

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Soil Compaction Models<br />

cles varies even more. The organic matter content of real field soil adds to the difficulty of<br />

the system as it changes across a field. Not to mention the implication of water content on<br />

the behavior of soil, particularly cohesion and friction (Spoor and Godwin, 1979).<br />

In the following examples are chosen to show the effect of certain parameters on grain<br />

behavior and the complexity of the physics involved.<br />

Delie and Bouvard (1997) show that spherical inclusions are easier to compact than angu-<br />

lar inclusions. The effect of particle size and bond strength on the breakage of lactose ag-<br />

glomerates was shown by Ning et al. (1997). The effect of humidity in monodisperse glass<br />

beads on quasi - static behavior of granular media was shown by Fraysse (1997). Even the<br />

rotation of particles changes mechanical behavior of granular media, i.e. the failure and<br />

dilatancy of the media (Oda et al., (1997)).<br />

The characteristics of force distributions in granular media is shown by Radjai et al.<br />

(1997). The authors show that the contact network consists of two complementary sub-<br />

networks. Firstly a strong sub-network ranging through the whole media and carrying a<br />

force larger than the average force. Secondly, the weak sub-network carrying less than the<br />

average pressure. The weak sub-network is responsible for the dissipation of the stress<br />

whereby the forces decay in a power law function. In the strong sub-network forces have a<br />

decreasing exponential distribution. As the contacts in the strong sub-network are non-<br />

sliding contacts, these contacts carry the whole deviatoric stress. These results are based on<br />

a numerical simulation of a few thousands of particles in two dimensions and are expected<br />

to theoretically agree with the real soil conditions.<br />

6.1.5 Discussion and Conclusions on Literature<br />

All the results from above show the important decision every scientist has to make when<br />

trying to model the behavior of granular material. It is a decision between the trial to come<br />

to a mere physical approach including all variations and differences between different me-<br />

dia in one equation or a more general approach just accounting for the behavior of the ma-<br />

terial observed while being robust against inherent variations at the grain level. The ap-<br />

proach taken by Etienne and Steinmann (2002) with their screwdriver test is a good exam-<br />

ple of a general approach accounting for large variations and being robust on the grain<br />

Ph.D. Thesis Dirk Ansorge (2007)<br />

98

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