Trafficability of Snow in Arctic and Subarctic Regions

• Main Author: Schreiner, B. G.
• Other Authors: ARMY ENGINEER WATERWAYS EXPERIMENT STATION VICKSBURG MS
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1965
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *SNOW; *ARCTIC REGIONS; MILITARY REQUIREMENTS; PERFORMANCE(ENGINEERING); LOADS(FORCES); FRICTION; TRAFFICABILITY; ANTARCTIC REGIONS; COMPRESSIVE PROPERTIES; VEHICLES; TERRAIN; MOUNTAINS; SNOW COVER; Antarctic; Arctic; Psi; Antarc*; Ice; permafrost; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0745150; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0745150

Whether a terrain is trafficable or not depends not only on the specific features of the terrain, but also on the characteristics of the vehicle. To achieve a better understanding of the trafficability problems in snow, a variety of vehicle systems was tested, including self-propelled, tracked and wheeled vehicles, and 10-ton sleds. The ground-contact pressures of the tracked vehicles ranged from 1.0 psi for the Tucker Sno-Cat to 10.5 psi for the M48 tank. The gross weights of the tracked vehicles ranged from 5,000 lb for the M29C weasel to 96,000 lb for the M48 tank. Because of their poor performance, only a few tests have been run with conventional wheeled vehicles. The tests with sleds were made to compare the performance of steel runners and two types of plastic runners.