Material Characterization and Numerical Modeling of Tire Interaction with Deformable Media: Application to Snow and Soil

Abstract

The interaction between pneumatic tires and deformable media is a critical area of study for off-road vehicles and agricultural machinery, where traction performance and/or terrain preservation are of primary importance. Traditionally, tire-terrain interaction studies have focused primarily on rigid surfaces such as asphalt. However, deformable terrains such as compacted snow and agricultural soil exhibit complex nonlinear behavior requiring advanced numerical models capable of accurately capturing terrain deformation for reliable traction prediction. This thesis investigates tire interaction with two deformable media, namely compacted snow with a density of 500 kg/m3 and cohesive sandy loam soil at 0.4% moisture content. The first part of the study focuses on the numerical modeling of compact snow. Various numerical approaches were investigated to determine the most suitable modeling method for capturing complex snow behavior from in-situ test data. These methods are benchmarked in terms of numerical stability, computational efficiency, and predictive accuracy. Furthermore, three simulation-based parameter identification methodologies are developed using in-situ experimental data to identify key material parameters used in common elastic-plastic material models, namely internal friction angle (ϕ) and material cohesion (d). The validity of the identified parameters is assessed through snow-tire traction simulations, indicating effectiveness in traction performance prediction. The second part of the study presents a nonlinear, physics-based numerical framework to simulate the interaction between a pneumatic tire i.e., Standard Reference Test Tire (SRTT 225/60R16) and agricultural soil. The model captures the coupled behavior of tire deformation and soil plasticity to predict traction generation and rut formation under controlled operation conditions. Additionally, parametric analysis was conducted to assess the effects of normal load, tire inflation pressure, and tread groove geometry on traction generation, local stress distribution, plastic strain development and soil shoving. Additionally, the study explores the applicability of Hybrid Lagrangian–Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics (HSPH) method for simulating highly deformable soft soil and is compared with the conventional mesh-based Coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian (CEL) approach. Overall, this work contributes to the development of reliable numerical frameworks and in-situ-data-based material parameterization for tire-terrain interaction on deformable media.