APPLICATION HEIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM OF A BULLDOZER TOWING A SCRAPER DOWN A WEAK SLOPE TERRAIN DURING BRAKING ACTION

Abstract

On earth moving sites, it is considered very important for the application height of effective braking force of a bulldozer towing a scraper down a weak slope terrain to be controlled in accordance with the pushing force of the scraper in order to avoid excessive wear of the track belt. Here, the tracking performance of a flexible tracked vehicle towing a scraper down at a constant speed on a given remolded silty loam sloping terrain is analysed by the use of a simulation program. As a result, it is clarified that the optimum application height under the maximum braking power decreases with the increment of pushing force of the scraper, and that the height should be controlled automatically according to the pushing force of the scraper, which is dependent on the slope angle.