📋 Case Study

Cold-Climate Sugar Beet Harvest Tire Selection in Minnesota

Increased rutting due to frozen top layer over moist subsoil, leading to harvest losses

🏗️ Project Overview

Frost-sensitive sugar beet harvest under early-frost conditions (−4°C avg soil temp)

🎯 Challenge

Increased rutting due to frozen top layer over moist subsoil, leading to harvest losses

🔧 Design Approach

Thermal-aware FEA modeling led to adoption of wider, lower-pressure tires (16.9R34 @ 95 kPa) with tread pattern optimized for shear resistance on icy soil crust

📐 Design Diagram

_adj = 0.83 • τ_frozen = 42 kPaRutting Risk ↓ Harvest Losses ↓Frozen LayerMoist SubsoilFEA Input

AI-generated project design illustration

📐 Key Calculations

Frozen Layer Shear Resistance

τ_frozen = c′ + σ_n × tanϕ′

Result: 42 kPa

Guided minimum lateral pressure gradient design

Thermal Conductivity Adjustment Factor

k_adj = k_20°C × (1 − 0.012 × ΔT)

Result: 0.83

Corrected FEA thermal boundary conditions

📊 Results

Harvest losses dropped from 9.2% to 3.7%; machine uptime increased 18%; post-harvest soil temperature recovery accelerated by 3.2 days

💡 Lessons Learned

• •Soil thermal state must be embedded in pressure distribution models
• •Frozen crust failure mode dominates lateral stability—not vertical loading

✅ Key Takeaways

• 1Soil thermal state must be embedded in pressure distribution models
• 2Frozen crust failure mode dominates lateral stability—not vertical loading