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Topic · Civil and Structural Engineering

Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics

Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics is a research topic within Civil and Structural Engineering. Science Explorer counts 22k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on advancements in soil mechanics, terrain interaction, and wheel-soil dynamics. It covers topics such as planetary rover mobility, discrete element method simulations, tillage forces, tractor performance, and traction prediction. The research encompasses applications in agricultural machinery, planetary exploration, and off-road vehicle dynamics.

  • Soil Mechanics
  • Terrain Interaction
  • Planetary Rovers
  • Discrete Element Method
  • Tillage
  • Wheel-Soil Interaction
  • DEM Simulation
  • Tractor Performance
  • Traction Prediction
  • Terramechanics Models
Research works
22k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+18%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
52% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics

Which countries lead Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (1.8k and 380 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.8k works
  2. 2 India 380 works
  3. 3 United States 307 works
  4. 4 Russia 304 works
  5. 5 Japan 179 works
  6. 6 Italy 116 works
  7. 7 Ukraine 109 works
  8. 8 Germany 107 works
  9. 9 Uzbekistan 85 works
  10. 10 Türkiye 83 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 52.2%India: 10.9%United States: 8.8%Russia: 8.7%6 others listed: 19.4%52%largest
China1,826 · 52.2%India380 · 10.9%United States307 · 8.8%Russia304 · 8.7%6 others listed679 · 19.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics research?

By volume in 2022-now, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs publishes the most Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics research, followed by China Agricultural University and Jiangsu University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural AffairsChina 93 works
  2. 2 China Agricultural UniversityChina 79 works
  3. 3 Jiangsu UniversityChina 77 works
  4. 4 Jilin UniversityChina 43 works
  5. 5 Shandong University of TechnologyChina 41 works
  6. 6 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 40 works
  7. 7 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 32 works
  8. 8 Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchIndia 31 works
  9. 9 Northeast Agricultural UniversityChina 30 works
  10. 10 Nanjing Agricultural UniversityChina 29 works

Who are the leading researchers in Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics include George Davey Smith, Martin McKee and Wei Huang.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations
  3. 3 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  4. 4 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  5. 5 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  6. 6 Qiang Zhang China 184k citations
  7. 7 Han Zhang China 161k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics?

The most cited paper in Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics is "Soil mechanics and plastic analysis or limit design" (Daniel C. Drucker, William Prager, 1952), with 4,159 citations. Next come "Methods of Soil Analysis 2d ed., pt. 1; Physical and Mineralogical Methods" (3,157) and "Nonlinear Analysis of Stress and Strain in Soils" (2,420).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Soil mechanics and plastic analysis or limit design Daniel C. Drucker, William Prager · Quarterly of Applied Mathematics Open access Jul 1952 4,159
2 Methods of Soil Analysis 2d ed., pt. 1; Physical and Mineralogical Methods A. Klute · Soil Science Aug 1988 3,157
3 Nonlinear Analysis of Stress and Strain in Soils James Michael Duncan, Chin-Yung Chang · Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division Sep 1970 2,420
4 Frictional–collisional constitutive relations for granular materials, with application to plane shearing P. C. Johnson, Roy Jackson · Journal of Fluid Mechanics Mar 1987 1,767
5 Fabric and Mineral Analysis of Soils ROY BREWER · Soil Science Jul 1965 1,646
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics research done?

The largest centres of Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Zhenjiang (China) and Harbin (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Zibo and Shihezi.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 337 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 130 works
  3. 3 ZhenjiangChina 80 works
  4. 4 HarbinChina 75 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 72 works
  6. 6 ChangchunChina 71 works
  7. 7 WuhanChina 59 works
  8. 8 TokyoJapan 59 works
  9. 9 ShanghaiChina 54 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 48 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ZiboCN · 42.1 works27×
  2. ShiheziCN · 25.3 works26×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics than the world average.

See Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics on the map

Where is the best place to study Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics?

Among universities, judged by research, Jiangsu University, China Agricultural University and Jilin University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 24.83%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Jiangsu UniversityNortheast Agricultur…China Agricultural U…Jilin University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Jiangsu UniversityChina 94.142.9%23.6×77 +86.8%
2China Agricultural UniversityChina 77.425.6%34.7×79 +110.3%
3Jilin UniversityChina 64.920.2%9.2×43 +19.4%
4Northeast Agricultural UniversityChina 64.433.8%28.3×30 +46.2%
5Northwest A&F UniversityChina 60.923.8%13.0×21 +27.5%
6Nanjing Agricultural UniversityChina 60.321.9%18.4×29 +75.6%
7Shandong University of TechnologyChina 59.016.4%38.0×40 +297.7%
8South China Agricultural UniversityChina 57.121.7%18.7×27 +16.6%
9Indian Institute of Technology KharagpurIndia 57.019.1%8.3×17 +37.7%
10Jilin Agricultural UniversityChina 56.822.9%30.2×17 +75.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics, country by country

Is Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 18% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.021% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics0.019% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics10.4% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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