This paper presents analytical models to investigate the steering maneuvers of planetary exploration rovers on loose soil. The models are based on wheel-soil interaction mechanics, or terramechanics, with which the traction and disturbance forces of a wheel are evaluated for various slip conditions. These traction forces are decomposed into the longitudinal and lateral directions of the wheel. ...

"Granular elasticity," useful for calculating static stress distributions in granular media, is generalized by including the effects of slowly moving, deformed grains. The result is a hydrodynamic theory for granular solids that agrees well with models from soil mechanics.

In slope engineering, soils are commonly at unsaturated state. The question of how to apply unsaturated soil mechanics theory to the slope stability analysis has become a hot spot in today’s geotechnical engineering research. Based on the experimental research of how shear strength of residual soil varies with water content, reasonable computation modules can be created. By using limit equilibr...

The non-linear programming theory along with active set algorithm is employed to solve the objective function of quadratic type problem in soil mechanics under plain strain and two dimensional loading conditions. Combination of lower bound limit analysis and finite element method leads to an appropriate procedure for determining the collapse load of the system. In this combined method, a linear...