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Cranfield University

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Ancillary Experiments<br />

7.3.7 Discussion, Conclusions, and further recommendations from LPPL<br />

It was shown that both contact area and load per perimeter length describe soil displace-<br />

ment. The importance of the LPPL having a significant influence can further be stressed by<br />

the mere vertical soil failure which will in detail be discussed in Section 7.5.<br />

Being able to describe the relative density increase in dependence of the reciprocal of the<br />

contact area, reciprocal of the perimeter, and the reciprocal of an interaction term between<br />

the two emphasized the overall validity of the concept as it was possible to predict the rela-<br />

tive density increase for both full size and small scale experiments highly accurately.<br />

The benefit of a long narrow contact patch was shown by Seig (1985) and others. With this<br />

study it was possible to actually link a parameter to the plate shape. However, for actual<br />

tyre and track design the contact time has to be taken into consideration, too. The implica-<br />

tions of contact time on the geometry of the implement have yet to be investigated and it is<br />

recommended to measure the pressure and actual displacement below a track simultane-<br />

ously to trace vertical displacement at varying depths while a track passes in a future study.<br />

This would answer the question to which extend it was sensible to take the effect of plate<br />

geometry into consideration with such experiments and whether it is necessary to replicate<br />

the true pressure distribution below the track, too, when considering contact time.<br />

For a future total evaluation and continuation of the work the availability of TexScan can<br />

contribute to the verification of the influence above as contact areas can be determined<br />

much more accurately and so can the perimeter length.<br />

7.4 Influence of Pressure History on Sinkage<br />

There has been a long controversy between soil scientists and agricultural engineers about<br />

the influence of a peaked vs. a constant pressure history and their implication on resulting<br />

sinkage. In literature no information can be found concerning their effect. Thus it is not<br />

clear whether and if so to what extent sinkage is affected by the loading pattern.<br />

The availability of a triaxial test apparatus which allows the application of axial load pat-<br />

tern up to 1 Hz enabled this experiment on the influence of constant vs. peak pressure. The<br />

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

169

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