PURPOSES: In this study, a numerical parametric study was performed to evaluate the effect of angular velocity and weight of wheel, and density of road-bed particles on corrugation development.
METHODS : Discrete element method coupled with rigid body dynamics was applied to simulate a wheel-running circular table with variations in independent parameters, such as wheel angular velocity, wheel weight, and particle density. The position profiles for travel distance from origin were compared and analyzed to confirm if the trend from numerical analysis agrees with the analytical solution.
RESULTS: The angular velocity of the wheel exhibits a clear inverse relationship with the development of corrugation even though the weight of wheel does not demonstrate clear trends for both long-wave and short-wave corrugation. The density of road-bed particles is observed to have clear proportional effect on corrugation development. The movement of corrugation to the running direction, which was observed in previous research, is also observed for various conditions.
CONCLUSIONS : The parametric study using discrete element method with rigid body dynamics clearly exhibits good agreement with analytical solution for initiation of corrugation. The coupled method is confirmed to supply additional information that cannot be delivered by analytical solution only.