TRAFFICABILITY OF SNOW TESTS ON SUBARCTIC SNOW

摘要

A total of 39 self-propelled tests-were run with tracked and wheeled vehicles at Boulder, Colorado; Fort Churchill, Manitoba, Canada; Kapus-kasing, Ontario, Canada; and Houghton, Michigan. In addition, a detailed test program consisting of 27 self-propelled, 24 towing, and 8 towed tests was conducted with tracked vehicles at Camp Hale, Colorado. The principal conclusion of the tests was that depth of the snowpack appears to be the most important factor affecting trafficability of subarctic snow which is kept soft by the process of sublimation. It is estimated that conventional wheeled vehicles would not negotiate snow deeper than about 25 per cent of the wheel diameter. Snow depth is correlated with vehicle-performance parameters such as rut depth and maximum drawbar pull. It was found that (a) ground-contact pressure is the most important vehicle characteristic affecting vehicle performance, and (b) drawbar pull is greater in moist than in dry snow for snowpack of the same depth and strength.