Overview of soil-machine interaction studies in soil bins

This paper presents a review of soil-machine interaction studies in soil bin test facilities; it provides an insight on the historical background, concepts, past and present studies and future research direction. Soil-machine interaction studies seek to provide scientific knowledge on how tillage tools and traction devices interact with the terrain over which they work or move. Variables usually investigated include; force required to pull or push the tillage tool, vertical and lateral forces on tools, soil failure patterns, soil particles displacement, force generated at the interface of the wheel and the soil, wheel sinkage, rolling resistance, wheel contact area estimation, and soil stress at different depths. Soil bin facility is a model laboratory for tillage and traction experiments. The main components include the soil bin that models the ground; mobile tool carrier that models tool/implement frame; soil engaging tool/device for modeling tillage tools or traction elements; power source and the drive system that model the prime mover; soil conditioning equipment for preparation of the soil before experiments; motion control system for controlling the moving components along the rails of the soil bin; measurement/data acquisition and analysis system for real time measurement, analysis and display of variables during experiments; a lifting system for hoisting of heavy components. Simulations with Finite Element and Discrete Element Methods together with experimental analyses in the field or the soil bin are applied by many researchers in studying soil machine interaction. Results of this kind of study are useful for design, modeling, prediction, performance evaluation and optimization of different kinds of off-road vehicles, earth moving machines, tractors, tillage tools/implements, traction elements, wheeled mobile robots and autonomous traction vehicles.