Thesis (PhD (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / Granular flow occurs in a broad spectrum of industrial applications that range from separation and mixing in the pharmaceutical industry, to grinding and crushing, blasting, stockpile construction, flow in and from hoppers, silos, bins, and conveyer belts, agriculture, mining and earthmoving. Two totally different approaches of modelling granular flow are the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and continuum methods such as Finite Element Methods (FEM). Continuum methods can be divided into nonpolar or classic continuum methods and polar continuum methods. Large displacements are usually present during granular flow which, without remeshing, cannot be solved with standard finite element methods due to severe mesh distortion. The Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method, which is a so-called meshless method, eliminates this problem since all the state variables are traced by material points moving through a fixed mesh. The main goal of this research was to model the flow of noncohesive granular material in front of flat bulldozer blades and into excavator buckets using a continuum method. A PIC code was developed to model these processes under plane strain conditions. A contact model was used to model Coulomb friction between the material and the bucket/blade. Analytical solutions, published numerical and experimental results were used to validate the contact model and to demonstrate the code’s ability to model large displacements and deformations. The ability of both DEM and PIC to predict the forces acting on the blade and bucket and the material flow patterns were demonstrated. Shear bands that develop during the flow of material were investigated. As part of the PIC analyses, a comparison between classic continuum and polar continuum (Cosserat) results were made. This includes mesh size and orientation dependency, flow patterns and the forces acting on the blade and the bucket. It is concluded that the interaction of buckets and blades with granular materials can successfully be modelled with PIC. In the cases conducted here, the nonpolar continuum was more accurate than the polar continuum, but the polar continuum results were less dependent on the mesh size. The next step would be to apply this technology to solve industrial problems.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this thesis, a high- fidelity multibody dynamics model of a backhoe for simulating the digging operation is developed using the DIS (Dynamic Interactions Simulator)multibody dynamics software. Sand is used as a sample digging material to illustrate the model. The backhoe components (such as frame, manipulators links,track segments, wheels and sprockets) are modeled as rigid bodies. The geometry of the major moving components of the backhoe is created using the Pro/E solid modeling software. The components of the backhoe are imported to DIS and connected using joints (revolute, cylindrical and prismatic joints). Rotary and linear actuators along with PD (Proportional-Derivative) controllers are used to move and steer the backhoe and to move the backhoes manipulator in the desired trajectory. Sand is modeled using cubic shaped particles that can come into contact with each other, the backhoes bucket and ground. A cubical sand particle contact surface is modeled using eight spheres that are rigidly glued to each other to form a cubical shaped particle, The backhoe and ground surfaces are modeled as polygonal surfaces. A penalty technique is used to impose both joint and normal contact constraints (including track-wheels, track-terrain, bucket-particles and particles-particles contact). An asperity-based friction model is used to model joint and contact friction. A Cartesian Eulerian grid contact search algorithm is used to allow fast contact detection between particles. A recursive bounding box contact search algorithm is used to allow fast contact detection for polygonal contact surfaces and is used to detect contact between: track and ground; track and wheels; bucket and particles; and ground and particles. The governing equations of motion are solved along with joint/constraint equations using a time-accurate explicit solution procedure. The sand model is validated using a conical hopper sand flow experiment in which the sand flow rate during discharge and the angle of repose of the resulting sand pile are experimentally measured. The results of the conical hopper simulation are compared with previously published experimental results. Parameter studies are performed using the sand model to study the e ffects of the particle size and the orifi ces diameter of the hopper on the sand pile angle of repose and sand flow rate. The sand model is integrated with the backhoe model to simulate a typical digging operation. The model is used to predict the manipulators actuator forces needed to dig through a pile of sand. Integrating the sand model and backhoe model can help improving the performance of construction equipment by predicting, for various vehicle design alternatives: the actuator and joint forces, and the vehicle stability during digging.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this thesis, an explicit time integration code which integrates multibody dynamics and the discrete element method is used for modelling the excavation and moving operation of cohesive soft soil (such as mud and snow) by bulldozers. A soft cohesive soil material model (that includes normal and tangential inter-particle force models) is used that can account for soil compressibility, plasticity, fracture, friction, viscosity and gain in cohesive strength due to compression. In addition, a time relaxation sub-model for the soil plastic deformation and cohesive strength is added in order to account for loss in soil cohesive strength and reduced bulk density due to tension or removal of the compression. This is essential in earth moving applications since the soil that is dug typically becomes loose soil that has lower shear strength and lower bulk density (larger volume) than compacted soil. If the model does not account for loss of soil shear strength then the dug soil pile in front of the blade of a bulldozer will have an artificially high shear strength. A penalty technique is used to impose joint and normal contact constraints. An asperity-based friction model is used to model contact and joint friction. A Cartesian Eulerian grid contact search algorithm is used to allow fast contact detection between particles. A recursive bounding box contact search algorithm is used to allow fast contact detection between the particles and polygonal contact surfaces. A multibody dynamics bulldozer model is created which includes the chassis/body, C-frame, blade, wheels and hydraulic actuators. The components are modelled as rigid bodies and are connected using revolute and prismatic joints. Rotary actuators along with PD (Proportional-Derivative) controllers are used to drive the wheels. Linear actuators along with PD controllers are used to drive the hydraulic actuators. Polygonal contact surfaces are defined for the tires and blade to model the interaction between the soil and the bulldozer. Simulations of a bulldozer performing typical shallow digging operations in a cohesive soil are presented. The simulation of a rear wheel drive bulldozer shows that, it has a limited digging capacity compared to the 4-wheel drive bulldozer. The effect of the relaxation parameter can be easily observed from the variation in the Bulldozer's velocity. The higher the relaxation parameter, the higher is the bulldozer's velocity while it is crossing over the soil patch. For the low penetration depth run the bulldozer takes less time compared to high penetration depth. Also higher magnitudes of torques at front and rear wheels can be observed in case of high penetration depth. The model is used to predict the wheel torque, wheel speed, vehicle speed and actuator forces during shallow digging operations on three types of soils and at two blade penetration depths. The model presented can be used to predict the motion, loads and required actuators forces and to improve the design of the various bulldozer components such as the blade, tires, engine and hydraulic actuators.