Heavy agricultural machinery can cause structural degradation in subsoils. Severe structural degradationrestricts or even impedes plant growth. Therefore, compaction can only be tolerated in soil horizons that can be structurallyreclaimed with reasonable effort, i.e. the upper 0.2 to 0.3 m (plow layer). The pressure exerted by tires of agricultural vehiclesis one of the main factors influencing soil compaction. In this study, we present data showing the spatial pressure distributionunderneath tires of agricultural vehicles in motion. The pressure was measured directly underneath the tire on a rigid surfaceas well as underneath a sand layer of 0.3 m. Pressures are strongly reduced by the sand layer. The data measured underneaththe sand layer are compared to model data calculated by means of a finite element model. Model and measured data agreewell. On the basis of our results, in finite element modeling, we suggest that it is better to use a nonhomogeneous loaddistribution for predicting soil compaction under tires of agricultural machinery.
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Gysi et al. (2001) studied this question.