# 1522 / Tractive performance of rigid wheel in granular media using coarse-scale DEM models Title: Tractive performance of rigid wheel in granular media using coarse-scale DEM models Authors: Bohumir Jelinek, Angela Card, George Mason, Thomas James, Karl Grebner, Thomas Skorupa, and Jody Priddy Abstract: Understanding the interaction between wheel and granular media in variable loading conditions is critical for prediction of net traction of wheeled and tracked vehicles in off-road environments. The discrete element method (DEM) is routinely used for modeling vehicle performance, but although simulations seem realistic, the method's accuracy is often not fully established. In this work, the DEM modeling accuracy is assessed by the comparison of ten DEM soil models with laboratory soil-bin measurements of the net traction, gross traction, and sinkage of a wheel operating in sand. Laboratory soil-bin measurements, serving as a reference for DEM simulations, were taken from physical experiments by Shinone et al. \[2010], examining a 165/60R13 wheel with constant circumferential velocity of 97.6 mm/s and vertical contact load of 980 N operating in powered conditions under slips in the range of -5.9% to 54.8%. The set of ten DEM models for soil particles and particle-box interaction was a subset of the Generic Material Model (GEMM) database from Altair®'s EDEMTM software package, choosing the best match to the particle size, bulk density, and angle for repose for dry sand. Parameters for wheel-particle interaction were taken from the GEMM database and from the tire-soil parameter set used by Hu et al. \[2021]. Given large particle size and no additional calibration of the DEM model, a good qualitative agreement for the gross tractive effort and sinkage is encouraging. The largest discrepancy is observed for the net tractive effort at large slip. A need for smaller particle size and further calibration are suggested for a future effort. Order the full paper: ISTVS members: receive three papers per year as part of your membership via the ISTVS Member Portal: --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://2023.istvs.org/submissions/papers/1522.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.