Innovations for Future Gap Crossing Operations; Conference paper

摘要

Even with the Army's transformation to lighter forces, problems in difficult terrains, such as coastal and riverine areas, soft soils, and man- made impediments can bring the flow of equipment and personnel to a standstill. ERDC researchers are presently developing gap-crossing technologies that use High Modulus Synthetic Fiber (HMSF) straps to achieve moment carrying capacities and increased survivability characteristics. The HMSF straps are used in conjunction with designs that combine optimized geometric properties for gaining high moments of inertia for bending resistance and the ability to fold the structure in order to minimize storage volume and enhance transportability. Additionally, the unfolded structures utilize both local support (inflatable or structural) and optimized structural designs to carry arbitrary loads while minimizing system weight. These prominent and versatile characteristics allow the structure to be considerably lighter than previous systems, which will enable such structures to be air transportable. Successful demonstrations of both full-scale and sub-scaled models, as well as Finite Element (FE) models and analytical and empirical studies, have shown that this new approach to gap-crossing is not only feasible and robust, but can be extended to meet a range of potential military and civilian needs, such as dismounted rooftop to rooftop movement in an urban environment to ingress and evacuation routes after natural disasters such as hurricanes and tsunamis.