Finite Element Modeling of Hydraulic Excavator in Soil Cutting Process

Abstract:

A three-dimensional finite element model of hydraulic excavator is proposed to simulate soil cutting. To consider nonlinear soil behaviors, we apply the theory of Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) and explicit dynamic method to analyze a large scale fluid-solid structure interaction problem. The elastic-plastic assumption theory is introduced to simulate soil material behavior during the process of soil cutting because the nonlinear elastic-plastic model has advantages of simultaneously accounting for dynamic effects of strain hardening, strain rate, automatic mesh contact with friction capability, soil mechanical behavior and soil-bucket interaction. Soil-bucket interaction is modeled as friction with adhesion depending upon different influencing factors. This paper also investigates the parameters that may cause computational instability in soil cutting analysis. The difficulties in the numerical simulation of soil cutting are overcome by adopting suitable parameters to meet the requirement of proper mesh separation criterion. The proposed modeling can also be used to predict soil stress distribution, soil deformation and Von Mises stress distribution of component in hydraulic excavator.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 145)
• Pages: 240-244
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.145.240
• Online since: December 2011
• Authors: Wei Yang, Pan Ke Wei, Ji Ming Sun
• Keywords: Computational Instability, Hydraulic Excavator, Nonlinear Elastic-Plastic, Numerical Simulation, Soil Cutting

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