A framework for earthmoving blade/soil model development

This paper presents a framework for earthmoving blade/soil model development that combines the advantages of both the analytical and numerical methods. This framework greatly expands the limitations of traditional analytically formulated models and can be effectively used to tackle the technical issues that are faced with complex dozing. This model has a lot of new capabilities compared to other models that can be found in the open literatures. Some of the new capabilities are (1) it is a three-dimensional model and is able to account for the tilted and angled blade operations on different terrain conditions: level, uphill, and downhill; (2) uneven cutting can be effectively handled by the proposed model; (3) the transient soil piling, spillage process, and earthmoving productivity can be predicted and animated; (4) the forces and moments can be predicted as well as their centroids; (5) the cutting soil volumetric expansion and transient surcharge effect on resultant forces and moments acting on blade are well established; (6) many systematic relationships involving the dynamic dozing are well established through this framework. Numerical examples and qualitative validations are provided to demonstrate and verify the capabilities of this newly developed framework.