A study on the mechanical behavior of soils during flat edge cutting

For the development of efficient earthmoving machinery, it is necessary to clarify the soil cutting mechanism, but there is no usual analytical or experimental technique for large deformation problems like soil cutting. Therefore, we have tried to apply the X-ray radiography method, which is a soil experiment method for the visualization and the quantative analysis of soil deformation, to the flat edge cutting problem. Firstly we have confirmed that the X-ray radiography method is applicable to large deformations, and have examined by this method the cutting mechanism of soils under various cutting conditions. As a result, the behavior of shear failure lines, which have not been studied in detail before, are clarified, and the differences in the cutting mechanism with the cutting angle and the nature of soils are discussed through the quantative estimation of the strain distribution. (author)