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Abstract. Understanding the working mechanism of tillage tools and their interactions with residue and soil is important for designing the tillage tools. In this study, a soil-tool-residue interaction model was developed for a sweep using the discrete element method (DEM). Soil, sweep, and straw were modelled using particles, walls, and clumps respectively. A virtual field consisted of two layers including a bottom soil layer and a top residue layer was constructed. The sweep was scanned and imported into the model. Oat residue samples were collected in a field and their mechanical properties were measured in the lab. Model parameters were measured or taken from the literature. As the sweep travelled through the virtual field, model behaviors including soil moving area, straw moving area, and straw forward displacement were monitored. Comparing the simulated values of soil and straw moving areas with those calculated from analytical models, the calibrated model parameters of particle stiffness and clump stiffness were 8.73e3 and 3.32e2 N m^-1 respectively. The average forward displacement of oat straws was 189 mm, which had a relative error of 9.2% as compared with the measurement data in the literature. The proposed DE model can be applied to shorten and enhance the design of tillage equipment in dealing with crop residues.