Dynamic Characteristics of a Vibrating Plate Compactor

Abstract

Vibrating plate soil compactors are widely used in building and road construction, yet no adequate dynamic theory exists to predict vital performance characteristics such as frequency of impacts, speed of forward travel, power delivered to the soil, etc. In this paper, a model is defined which takes into account the intrinsically nonlinear features of the process. Two modes of investigation are used. First, it is shown that for certain values of system parameters, it is possible to have periodic behavior of the system where the period of the motion is an integer multiple of the period of the exciting force. The dynamic stability of these “simple” nonsyn-chronous steady-state solutions is investigated, and the stability boundaries in parameter space are found. Next, it is shown how the problem may be investigated via a digital computer. This mode of investigation allows us to explore a wide variety of possible motions, and enables us to predict the performance for any given set of system parameters. In general, it is found that the forward speed and power delivered to the soil are sensitive functions of the ratio of exciting force to dead weight. The power delivered to the soil tends to be a maximum when the exciting force is approximately twice the dead weight.