Assessment of the side thrust induced by a grouser for off-road tracked vehicles

摘要

When a tracked vehicle travels off-road, a shearing action takes place on the soil-track interface, resulting in slip displacement and soil thrust acting as traction force. Although the soil thrust is a traction force both induced on the bottom and side of the track, the side thrust generated by the grouser has not been fully understood and its mechanism has not been clearly established. In this paper, a series of model track experiments were performed on a model track to examine its side thrust under Gwanak weathered residual soil at loose state of 40% relative density. From the experiment results, the side thrust was theoretically examined, indicating that punching shear failure whose coefficient was between those of at-rest earth pressure and passive earth pressure took place on the side of the track.