Rapid and precise calibration of soil microparameters for high-fidelity discrete element models in vehicle mobility simulation

In the realm of numerical simulations concerning vehicle mobility, the establishment of a high-fidelity soil discrete element model often necessitates substantial parameter adjustments to align with the mechanical responses of actual soil. In pursuit of a rapid and precise calibration of the microparameters of the soil model, this paper describes an approach rooted in machine learning surrogate models. This method calibrates the corresponding discrete element microparameters based on the macroscopic Mohr–Coulomb parameters derived from actual soil direct shear tests. The distinct contribution lies in the creation of a dataset that bridges the soil microparameters and macroparameters through simulated direct shear tests, which serves as training data for machine learning algorithms. Additionally, an adaptive particle swarm optimization neural network algorithm is proposed to represent the nonlinear relationships among parameters within the dataset, thus achieving intelligent calibration. To verify the reliability of the proposed soil calibration model in the context of vehicle mobility simulations, a co-simulation is conducted using a vehicle multibody dynamics simulation model and the calibrated soil model, with validation conducted across multiple criteria.