Trafficability of Snow, Greenland Studies, 1955 and 1957

• Main Author: Rula, A. A.
• Other Authors: ARMY ENGINEER WATERWAYS EXPERIMENT STATION VICKSBURG MS
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1960
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *GREENLAND; *SNOW; STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES; TEST METHODS; TRAFFICABILITY; VEHICLES; TRACKED VEHICLES; ARCTIC REGIONS; PERFORMANCE(ENGINEERING); MILITARY REQUIREMENTS; FLEXURAL STRENGTH; Arctic; Greenland; Ice; Ice cap; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0756111; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0756111

Self-propelled, towing, and towed tests were conducted with several wheeled and tracked military vehicles on a variety of fine-grained and wet coarse-grained snow conditions. The 1955 tests were conducted at various sites on or adjacent to a 220-mile-long, marked trail leading from the edge out onto the ice cap; the 1957 tests were all run at mile 30 on this route. Objectives of the study were to correlate vehicle performance with snow-property measurements, select an instrument that will measure snow trafficability and also meet military specifications, and distinguish snow conditions that permit a vehicle to travel from those that do not. Vehicle performance was correlated with ten methods of measuring snow strength and two physical snow properties; cone index provided the best correlation.