Agricultural Soil Simulation during Plate Displacement Test Using Finite Element Method and Drucker-Prager Model

Soil compaction increase is one of the main threats to agricultural soil structure, which may even lead to soil decomposition. In order to prevent the phenomenon of soil compaction, knowing the mechanical properties of soil is important in the determination of the allowable stress limits. Pre-compaction stress, as the maximum stress that soil can withstand without increasing its compaction, is one of the most important mechanical properties of soil. The plate sinkage test is a suitable method for determining the soil pre-compaction stress. In this research, the experimental test of plate deposition on a sample of arable soil (loamy sandy loam) at the moisture content of 15% d.b. with density of 1500 kg.m3 was performed and the soil mechanical properties were determined. Then, the plate sitting test was performed in twodimensional and symmetrical methods by finite element method and Drucker Prager model in Abaqus software and precompression stress was predicted by this method. Stress distribution and displacement in the soil depth layers were also analyzed. The results showed that the Drucker-Prager model with a 99% explanation coefficient was in good agreement with the data obtained from the experiments. Examination of compressive stress and displacement in different layers in the soil depth showed that the amount of stress and displacement in the layers close to the load surface was higher than that for the lower layers.