TRAFFICABILITY IN SNOW TRENCHES

• Main Author: Abele,Gunars
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER N H
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1963
• Subjects: *ROADS; TRAFFICABILITY; SNOW; HARDNESS; SURFACES; UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES; SNOW VEHICLES; RAILROADS; RAILROAD TRACKS; COMPRESSIVE PROPERTIES; AGING(MATERIALS); FAILURE(MECHANICS); Greenland
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0430193; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0430193

During the 1960 Greenland test season, a study was made on the trafficability of snow-trench floors, including rail traffic on a natural snow floor and heavy wheel-load traffic on both natural snow and snow processed by a Peter snow miller. The effect of aluminum landing mats and a neoprene-coated nylon membrane was investigated. It was found that a natural-snow trench floor is not capable of supporting heavy, standard wheel-load traffic. The processed-snow floor is capable of supporting 7000-lb wheel loads for at least 500 coverages without any indications of failure or surface wearing. The use of landing mats appears to be unnecessary, and the membrane as a wearing surface is unsuitable because of its slippery surface. The natural snow floor is capable of supporting mine rail traffic and may be able to support a full-size railroad system, but further study is necessary. Investigation is also needed on heavy wheel-load traffic in a curved trench and at a higher speed. (Author) In cooperation with Denver Univ., Colo., Contract DA11 190ENG55.