Elastic resistive force theory: development and applications to flexible intruders

Area of Science:

• Geophysics
• Soil Mechanics
• Robotics

Background:

• Granular intrusion and extraction are common in off-road vehicles, construction, and agriculture.
• Existing models like resistive force theory (RFT) offer computational efficiency but struggle with static conditions and pre-flow force dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address limitations of traditional RFT by developing an elastic RFT (eRFT) model.
• To enable accurate simulation of granular interactions under static and dynamic conditions.

Main Methods:

• Introduced eRFT by splitting intruder motion into elastic and plastic components.
• Developed a method to couple RFT or eRFT with deformable intruders.
• Applied eRFT to simulate plant uprooting, modeling roots as nonlinear inextensible beams.

Main Results:

• eRFT successfully models elastic force build-up before granular flow.
• The coupled model accurately simulates complex scenarios like plant uprooting.
• Demonstrated the model's capability to handle deformable intruders.

Conclusions:

• eRFT provides a more comprehensive approach to modeling granular resistive forces.
• The ability to couple with deformable objects opens new simulation possibilities.
• Potential applications include deformable wheel locomotion and advanced agricultural robotics.