# 3303 / Soil Instrumentation For Measuring Normal Stress Distribution Under Off-Road Tire ## Authors Alexandru Vilsan, Nikhil Ravichandran, Chaitanya Sonalkar, and Corina Sandu {% hint style="info" %} Paper presented at ISTVS 2024 | 21st International and 12th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS\ Keywords: Off-road mobility; Soil instrumentation; Terramechanics; Soil compaction; Normal stress distribution\ {% endhint %} ## Abstract The distribution of normal stress within soil plays an important role in determining the tire-soil interaction dynamics, affecting tire traction performance, soil compaction, and overall vehicle stability. A comprehensive analysis of the normal stress patterns will allow researchers to refine tire designs, tread characteristics, and inflation pressures for enhanced off-road performance across diverse terrains. This study presents a novel soil instrumentation device designed to measure normal stress distribution in soil following a single pass of an off-road tire. The developed device employs an array of piezoresistive vertical load sensors for providing real-time, accurate data of normal stress distribution beneath the tire during operation. Several tire-soil interaction tests were performed at the Virginia Tech Terramechanics Test Rig to verify the output of the load sensors. The sensor array was embedded in GRC-1 Lunar Soil Simulant at a depth of 150 mm while an off-road tire loaded with a vertical force of 2000 N traversed over the surface of the terrain. The results obtained showed significant differences in pressure patterns under different toe angles, indicating a good correlation between the actual normal stress distribution and the readings from the sensor array. *** Full paper purchase: \ ISTVS members receive three complimentary papers per year: --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://2024.istvs.org/submissions/papers/3303.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.