Abstract
Trafficability properties of a bulldozer having rigid track belts which operates on a weak terrain at driving and braking states have been clarified analytically by use of a new energy balance method presented here. Especially, the relations between driving and braking force, drawbar-pull, effective braking force, sinkages of front idler and rear sprocket and slip ratio and the relations between eccentricity of resultant normal force and slip ratio have been analyzed from those energy balances between input energy, slip energy, drawbar-pull or effective braking force energy and compaction energy. Those analytical results have been agreed fairly well with the experimental test results for a small test vehicle running on a remolded weak silty loam terrain. And an optimum slip ratio to obtain a maximum productivity, or an optimum average contact pressure to obtain a maximum drawbar-pull could be determined.
