An Analysis of Soil Failure by a Subsoiler with Pressurized Fluid Injection (Part 2)

Nonlinear Three-Dimensional Finite Element Analysis of Air Injection Cutting

Abstract

There are two design objectives for subsoilers with pressurized fluid injection for use as pan-breaker or injector; a large soil failure rate is desirable when it is used as a pan-breaker and little soil failure is advantageous when it is used as an injector. This report analyzed theoretically soil failure by pan-breaker or injector with air injection by a finite element method (FEM).
The results showed that it was impossible that a new tensile stress zone, with which traction power could be decreased, was produced in soil layer by air injection. However, disturbance energy increased by air injection both in pan-breaker and injector. This is due to the fact that forward rupturedistance, maximum vertical soil movement at the soil surface and the number of slip surfaces increased and there was a considerable soil disturbance by air injection.