International Journal of Engineering and Technology

The soil condition and grouser height of the track equipped on the crawler vehicle have a significant influence on tractive performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the grouser height affect on tractive performance of a single grouser shoe under different soil moisture contents. Ten different moisture contents of clay soil were provided in this study. For each moisture contents, a penetration test, a direct shearing test, as well as density and moisture content measurements were performed for deriving the soil parameters. Based on the soil parameters under different moisture contents and the 3-dimensional shearing model proposed in this study, the tractive performance of a single grouser shoe was analyzed. The results showed that the track vehicles with a shorter grouser performed better under a dry soil, and performance with longer grouser tracks was better under higher moisture content soil.