NUMERICAL PREDICTION OF TRACTIVE PERFORMANCE OF TRACK-SOIL INTERACTION SYSTEM THROUGH DIFFERENT GROUSER HEIGHTS

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the influence of moisture contents and grouser heights on traction force exerted on different surfaces in the track-soil interaction system. A sandy loam was employed for acquiring the soil parameters, such as kc, kφ, n, C, Ca, δ, φ, and γ. These parameters were obtained through the mean of the bevameter technique. Moisture contents of the sandy loam were changed from low to high levels, which could be listed as 1.4%, 8.0%, 14.7%, and 22.2% at last. The direct shear and penetration tests were performed for each soil condition of the moisture content, respectively. The model of the single-grouser-shoe (track model) had a length of 9 cm, a width of 15 cm, and varied grouser heights from 0 to 15 cm with a 0.5 cm interval. Based on the calculation result, in general, the shearing force produced by the bottom surface always performs better than either the shear force on the grouser-tip surface or two lateral surfaces. Simultaneously, prediction results also show that the shearing forces were significantly influenced by the level of moisture content in the soil.