Paper presented at ISTVS 2025 | 55th Conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems https://doi.org/10.56884/7AEYKXDK
Author: Mark Bodie
Keywords: Snowplowing; motion resistance; traction; mobility; sinkage
Abstract:
Winter surfaces are characterized by low strength, which can result in deep vehicle sinkage and high vehicle motion resistances. If the vehicle’s sinkage is greater than the vehicle’s ground clearance, snowplowing forces occur, further increasing the vehicles motion resistance. The increased motion resistance can lead to vehicle immobility if the vehicle’s available traction is exceeded. In this work we investigate the effect of snow subduction on vehicle mobility. When snowplowing occurs a portion of the plowed snow can be subducted under the vehicle’s belly. The subducted snow is compressed resulting in both an increase in motion resistance and a normal load reduction under the vehicle’s track or tire. We developed an algorithm which includes both snow subduction effects on the vehicle’s mobility. In the study we found that the snow subducted under the vehicle has a substantial effect on the vehicle’s mobility. We simulated a 103kPa ground pressure vehicle with 0.1m snow subduction zone. When snow subduction was included in the analysis, we found that vehicle immobility occurred at a snow depth of 0.59m as compared to a depth of 0.7m when subduction was not included. The large variation in snow depth at vehicle immobility, underlines the importance of including snow subduction in vehicle mobility and route planning analyses. In future work we will improve the accuracy of the algorithm by incorporating snow stratigraphy. The current algorithm uses bulk density to determine snow strength, in future analyses we will incorporate snow layer density and grain size to improve the algorithms accuracy.
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