An experimental investigation was undertaken upon the mobility characteristics of a smooth rigid rubber wheel and a treaded rubber wheel on two U.K. Soils - London Clay and the leaner, sandy Cheshire Clay. Earlier work on soil rubber shear has been summarised and related to the present work utilising a simple experimental test facility. From the numerous experiments on the two clays at different moisture contents with the smooth and treaded wheels, graphs were plotted of torque v. slip, vertical reaction v. slip, rolling resistance v, slip, drawbar pull v. slip, all at various sinkages. The results of these experiments have been simplified and compounded into an operating surface, i.e. a graph of drawbar pull v. torque with slip, sinkage and vertical reaction contours superimposed. Conclusions are drawn regarding the mobility characteristics of plain and treaded wheels on the "fat" London Clay and the leaner, sandy Cheshire Clay.
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