Abstract
The general mechanism of tractive performance of a four-wheel vehicle with rear-wheel drive moving up and down a sloped sandy soil has been considered theoretically. For the given vehicle dimensions and terrain-wheel system constants, the relationships among the effective tractive or braking effort of the vehicle, the amount of sinkage of the front and rear wheels, and the slip ratio were analysed by simulation. The optimum eccentricity of the vehicle’s center of gravity and the optimum application height of the drawbar-pull for obtaining the largest value of maximum effective tractive or braking effort could be calculated by means of the analytical simulation program. For a 5.88 kN weight vehicle, it was found that the optimum eccentricity of the center of gravity eopt was 1/6 for the range of slope angle—0βπ/24 rad during driving action of the rear wheel and eopt was also 1/6 for the range of slope angle—π/24β0 rad during braking action of the rear wheel. The optimum application height Hopt was found to be 35 cm for the range of slope angle 0βπ/24 rad during driving action of the rear wheel and Hopt was 0 cm for the range of slope angle—π/24β0 rad during braking action of the rear wheel.
Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. Simulation analysis
2.1. Rear-wheel drive vehicle
2.2. Rear-wheel brake vehicle
2.3. Analytical results
3. Eccentricity of center of gravity control system
3.1. Rear-wheel drive vehicle
3.2. Rear-wheel brake vehicle
4. Height of application force control system
5. Effect of slope angle
5.1. Optimum eccentricity
5.2. Optimum application height
6. Conclusions
References