A rationale for modeling soil compaction behavior: an engineering mechanics approach

ABSTRACT Modeling agricultural soil compaction is important as one input to a system of effective management of soil physical condition to improve crop production. The desired degree of compaction depends on the intended purpose; for example, the requirements for traction and mobility are quite different from those for infiltration and root propagation. Our goal is to develop a compaction model and related soil and soil-machine behavior models which can be used to design systems for effective management of soil physical condition. In this article we discuss our rationale in modeling soil compaction and related soil-machine systems. The status of the various modeling efforts is discussed, as are plans and needs for the future.