Slip-Line Analysis of Bearing Capacity-Sinkage Relation on Farm Soil

Abstract

A farm land generally consists of soft soil and hard subsoil pan. In other words it has two-layered structure. Since sinkage of farm vehicles would mainly depend on the bearing capacity of tilth, sinkage characteristics on farm land remarkably differ from on a homogeneous semi-infinite ground.
As a first step of theoretical study on the sinkage of farm vehicles, bearing capacity-sinkage relation is analyzed by the slip-line method, idealizing rigid pan such that a rigid plate penetrates into soil. The calculated results are shown in Fig. 9, where q is a dimensionless bearing capacity devided by cohesion, W is the width of rigid plate, D is the depth of tilth and S is sinkage. On the other hand, test results on the Masa-do (sandy clay loam) are shown in Fig. 11, where the theoretical curves are also shown. The theory could express the general trends of the experimental results.