Abstract
Sinkege of a driving wheel increases on sandy soil, since the sand under the wheel flows backward or sideward. In this research, we proposed a tread profile of wheel that suppresses sand flow and reduces sinkage during travel, and verified the effectiveness of a wheel with the tread profile by experiments. We conducted penetration tests on sandy soil utilizing wooden blocks that simulate frontal profile of wheel treads by flat, convex, and concave shapes, and identified the differences on penetration resistance among three types of tread shapes. Furthermore, we made rigid wheels with three types of tread profiles for single-wheel drive tests to compare the traveling performance on wheel sinkage and travel distance on sandy soil. We found that the wheel with concave tread has larger penetration resistance or bearing capacity compared to the other tread profiles. The wheel with concave tread had less sinkage than the other wheels, and traveled with almost constant sinkage in a sustained manner, even under the conditions for the convex and flat tread wheels being impossible to travel.
