Steerability Analysis of Tracked Vehicles on Soft Soil; Theoretical Predictions Versus Field Measurements

摘要

In 1978, a terrain-vehicle interaction model was developed by the authors for predicting the steering performance of high-mobility/agility tracked vehicles in environments ranging from very soft soils to hard surfaces. To validate the accuracy of the model for predicting the steering performance of tracked vehicles on soft soils, circular-turn tests were conducted at two sites on a floodplain north of Redwood, Mississippi, and on a dredged spoil area within the WES reservation at Vicksburg, Mississippi. A number of in situ direct shear tests were conducted at each test site and the results used to fit a mathematical soil model with a rate-dependent nonlinear failure envelope for input to the tracked vehicle prediction model. Thirty-five circular-turn tests were conducted at the three test sites, but due to instrumentation problems, complete data were collected for only 16 tests at the Redwood sites. Results from these 16 'good tests' were used to validate both the steady-state and the transient versions of the model.