Abstract
The penetration of a plate into granular media was analyzed, and the effects of particle–plate and particle–particle frictions, penetration direction, and initial plate orientation were examined. Results showed that stress was directly proportional to immersion depth for frictionless particles but jumped at the bed surface and then increased linearly for frictional particles. Moreover, stress was mostly independent of the penetration direction when the plate was frictionless. However, initial orientation always had an effect regardless of whether the plate was frictional or frictionless. Furthermore, a theoretical model was developed for stress analysis. This model revealed that friction on the plate essentially affected stress via changing the push angle of the particles that were in contact with the plate.