• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.693-703
• /
• 2017

Rover wheel's mobility depends on soil's condition and wheel's design. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of soil conditions, which are Jumunjin sand and Korean lunar soil simulant (KLS-1), on wheel's motion performance. The experiments were performed by using a single wheel testbed with a wheel which grouser height is 15mm on Jumunjin sand and KLS-1, respectively. Also the influence of grouser length to wheel's mobility performance was studied. The experimental results of torque, drawbar pull and sinkage relating to slip ratio were discussed and analyzed to evaluate wheel's motion performance. Results showed wheel moving on KLS-1 has high performance than Jumunjin sand. Wheel's mobility performance was influenced by soil's properties of cohesion and frictional angle. In addition, wheel's performance of drawbar pull and Torque increased with the increasing of grouser length.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.188.2-188.2
• /
• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.31-41
• /
• 2021

A dozer is a construction machinery used to move soil mass along large open tracts of land. Soil thrust generated on the soil-track interface determines the performance of the dozer; to improve the tractive performance of the dozer, the outer surface of the continuous-track is designed to protrude with grousers. In this study, we calculated soil thrust of the dozer equipped with grousers with various shape ratios, and evaluated the optimal grouser shape ratio considering ground conditions. Grouser generated additional soil thrust on the side of the continuous-track (e.g., side soil thrust) and converted the shearing surface (e.g., from soil-track interface to soil-soil interface), increasing the soil thrust of dozer by about 1.3 to 1.6 times. The effect of grouser's shape ratio on the soil thrust of dozer differed with the relative density of the ground. As the shape ratios of grouser increased, soil thrust of dozer decreased at the relative density of 40% and increased at the relative density of 80%. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the shape ratio of grouser severely affects the dozer's performance; thus, careful consideration of the optimal shape ratio of grouser is of great importance in the mechanical design, evaluation, and optimization of the undercarriage of dozers.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.34 no.9
• /
• pp.33-42
• /
• 2018

When an off-road tracked vehicle travels, an engine thrust that is transmitted to the continuous track induces a shearing action on the soil-track interface. Consequently, the relative displacement known as slip displacement takes place on the soil-track interface, which develops an associated soil thrust acting as a traction force. For the loose or soft ground conditions, an excessively large slip displacement can be required for the development of the desired soil thrust which will make the tracked vehicle mobile and therefore the outer surface of the continuous track is generally designed to protrude with grousers. This paper fundamentally studied the effect of grousers on the soil thrust of off-road tracked vehicles. Based on the soil-track interaction theory, a new soil thrust assessment method that properly takes into account the effect of grousers was developed. Also, the soil thrust of off-road tracked vehicles equipped with a number of grousers was evaluated using the developed assessment method. The results showed that grousers increased the soil thrust of the continuous track, enhancing the overall tractive performance of off-road tracked vehicles. These effects were more obvious as the height of grouser increased and the spacing of grouser decreased; thus, it is concluded that the grouser which has smaller shape ratio (span of the grouser to a grouser height) significantly enhances off-road tracked vehicle's performance.