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Terramechanics
Journal of Terramechanics 50 (2013) 303310
www.elsevier.com/locate/jterra

Experimental investigation of vehicle mobility using a novel

wheel mobility number
Shawky Hegazy a,b, Corina Sandu c,
a
Egyptian Armed Forces, Egypt
b
MTC, Egypt
c
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, United States

Received 17 September 2012; received in revised form 28 September 2013; accepted 28 September 2013
Available online 22 October 2013

Abstract

The wheel mobility number is a dimensionless variable used to predict the combined eect of tire and soil parameters on tractive per-
formance. As the mobility number increases, the tractive performance improves. The wheel mobility number depends on soil strength,
tire load, and tire geometry (width, diameter, section height, and deection). The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the eect of
tire and soil parameters on vehicle mobility. For this purpose, the soil strength is obtained experimentally using an electronic cone pen-
etrometer. The tire geometry is obtained by experimental testing at dierent loads, from 2 to 6 kN. This includes the eect of the var-
iation of tire ination pressure from 100 to 250 kPa on tire section height and tire width. The tire ination pressure, tire width, and wheel
diameter are used as independent variables to investigate the relative wheel numeric. The eect of the soil strength, tire load, and tire
geometry, as dependent variables, on the wheel mobility number, is also investigated. The results show that the mobility number
increases when soil strength and tire diameter increase, and tire width, tire load, and tire pressure decrease. Based on theoretical analysis
and experimental testing, a proposed wheel mobility number is introduced. It depends on the wheel numeric and the square root of the
dierence between the tire section height and the tire deection, divided by the tire diameter. Using the proposed wheel mobility number,
the vehicle mobility is predicted and a very good correlation with experimental data is obtained.
2013 ISTVS. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Mobility number; Soil strength; Tire pressure; Tire geometry; Vehicle performance

1. Introduction cles by dimensionless tire performance coecients. The

To evaluate the o-road vehicle performance on
deformable surfaces experimental studies for the tire and
soil interaction are carried out, in order to develop approx-
imate relations between vehicle performance and terrain
conditions. Several relations are proposed in the literature
to determine a wheel dimensionless number that expresses
and predicts the vehicle performance. The wheel mobility
number is a dimensionless variable that depends on tire
and soil parameters. There are two main approaches:
empirical and semi-empirical. The empirical approach is
based on the cone index for predicting the mobility of vehi-
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: csandu@vt.edu (C. Sandu).
semi-empirical approach involves measuring soil deforma-
tion parameters, then calculating the soil shear-stress. The
shear deformation of the soil under a traction device is
assumed to be similar to the shear generated by a torsional
shear device. For the normal stress Bekker [1,2] assumed
that the soil under the traction device behaves similarly
as the soil under a at plate, and determined that it
depends on sinkage, plate width, and soil coecient.
Wismer and Luth [3] combined mobility models with
soil shear model and introduced the slip into mobility mod-
els. Freitag [4] developed the rst dimensionless wheel
mobility number, as well as empirical mobility models.
Turnage [5] presented separate methods for determining
the soil properties for friction and cohesive soils and the
corresponding mobility models. Gee-Glough [6,7] found

0022-4898/$36.00 2013 ISTVS. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jterra.2013.09.005
304 S. Hegazy, C. Sandu / Journal of Terramechanics 50 (2013) 303310

Nomenclature

b tire section width (mm) h tire section height (mm)

CI cone index (kPa) P tire ination pressure (kPa)
kB, kF, kM, kR, kT, kW, kHS proposed coecients of R1 tire loaded height (mm)
wheel mobility numbers s longitudinal wheel slip
N wheel numeric W tire load (N)
NB, NF, NM, NR, NT, NW, NHS wheel mobility numbers d tire deection (mm)
d overall tire diameter (mm)

out that soil shear strength was somewhat correlated with The wheel mobility number investigated by Freitag [4] is
penetration resistance, and introduced a soil shear factor CIbd
into the model. Brixius [8,9] developed a more generalized NF  kF 3
W
expression for tractive characteristics of bias-ply pneumatic
tires based on a modied mobility number. Maclaurin where kF is a coecient introduced by Freitag and dened
[1013] studied the inuence of soil surface properties as
r
and tire patterns on wheel performance using the Water- d
ways Experiment Station (WES) method as a frame of ref- kF
h
erence. Rowland [14,15] developed WES models based on a
new wheel numeric. Several other authors around the The wheel mobility number investigated by Turnage [5]
world have used these models, or presented improved ver- is
sions of empirical mobility models using penetrometer CIbd
resistance as soil parameter. NT  kT 4
W
The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the
where kT is a coecient introduced by Turnage and dened
eect of tire and soil parameters on vehicle mobility. Using
as
experimental parameters for soil strength and tire parame- r
ters a case study is carried out to investigate their eects on d 1
the wheel mobility number and, accordingly, on vehicle kT
h 1 2db
performance. Based on theoretical and experimental test-
ing, a proposed wheel mobility number is introduced. The wheel mobility number investigated by Brixius [8,9]
is
2. wheel mobility number CIbd
NB  kB 5
W
The wheel numeric, N, given in Eq. (1), is a dimension-
where kB is a coecient introduced by Brixius and dened
less variable that depends on tire load, W, tire width, b, tire
as
diameter, d, and soil strength (via the cone index, CI). !
CIbd 1 5dh
N 1 kB
W 1 3b
d

The wheel mobility number is also a dimensionless var- The wheel mobility number investigated by Maclaurin
iable that depends on the wheel numeric. Dierent authors [1013] is
have proposed dierent empirical models for the wheel
CIbd
mobility number, tting combinations of tire dimensions NM  kM 6
with observed tire performance to compute the coecient W
that multiplies the wheel numeric. The relations below revi- where kM is a coecient introduced by Maclaurin and de-
sit some of the most commonly known wheel mobility ned as
formulae.
d0:4
The simple wheel mobility number investigated by Wis- kM
mer and Luth [3] is b0:2 d 0:2
CIbd The wheel mobility number investigated by Rowland
NW  kW 2 and Peel [14,15] is
W
CIbd
where kW is a coecient introduced by Wismer and Luth, NR  kR 7
kW = 1 W
 S. Hegazy, C. Sandu / Journal of Terramechanics 50 (2013) 303310
where kR is a coecient introduced by Rowland and Peel
and dened as
r Please note the consistency of the experimental data pre-
d 0:15 d
k R 0:15
b h
3. Experimental testing
The experimental testing includes soil strength and tire
parameters determination required for the wheel mobility
number evaluations.
3.1. Soil testing
The soil strength is often represented by the cone index,
CI, which is the average force per unit area required to push
a cone shaped probe vertically into the soil at a steady rate.
The average trac cone index for the top 150 mm layer of
soil is used. The soil strength of loose sand has been
obtained in this study using a cone penetrometer in a soil
bin, where the pressure corresponding to this force is an
index of the soil resistance. The variation of the cone index
with penetration depth for loose sand is shown in Fig. 1.
Multiple tests have been performed. Each test is illustrated
in Fig. 1 by a dierent symbol. All the data collected has
been included in an Excel le; the best-t curve for all the
measurements has been obtained using the respective Excel
function, and it is shown in Fig. 1 with the continuous line.
3.2. Tire testing
There are two main methods that could be employed for
tire testing with the scope of identifying the tire parameters.
The rst method involves testing the tire at dierent loads
and ination pressure values. For example, in this study,
using single wheel tester [16], the tire parameters of tire size
7.5-R16 (i.e., undeformed tire width of 190.5 mm, tire rim
of 406.4 mm diameter) are obtained experimentally by
ultrasonic sensors at dierent ination pressures, varying
from 100 to 250 kPa, and at dierent tire loads, varying
from 2 to 6 kN. The eect of the tire ination pressure
on tire width, tire diameter and tire section height at dier-
Fig. 1. Variation of soil strength with penetration depth.
305
ent tire loads, as collected from the experiments, is given in
Table 1.
sented in Table 1 with common observations. For example,
the eect of changing the ination pressure from 100 kPa
to 200 kPa, while maintaining the tire load constant at
2 kN, is a decrease in the tire width (from 214 mm to
209 mm), an increase in the tire height (from 161 mm to
173 mm), and a decrease in the tire deection (from
13 mm to 10 mm). To see how the vertical load applied
on the tire inuences the parameters recorded, for an ina-
tion pressure of 200 kPa, for example, if the load increases
from 2 kN to 6 kN, the tire width increases (from 209 mm
to 217 mm), the tire height decreases (from 173 mm to
160 mm), and the tire deection increases (from 10 mm to
15 mm). The analysis in this study is based on the experi-
mental data presented in Table 1.
For the second method, which has been employed in
[17], the tire pressure is increased to compensate for the tire
load, keeping the tire parameters (diameter, width, and sec-
tion height) constant, as shown in Table 2 [17].
4. Wheel mobility investigation
4.1. Evaluation of relative wheel numeric
The relative wheel numeric is dened as the ratio
between the wheel numeric computed using the varying
input variable and the wheel numeric computed using the
nominal value of the input variable. The relative wheel
mobility number is computed in a similar manner.
For the purpose of this evaluation, the tire ination
pressure (which inuences the tire deection), the tire
width, and the wheel diameter are used as independent
variables [18]. The following are considered as nominal val-
ues: a soil with a cone index of CI = 400 kPa (e.g., sandy
soil), and a tire under a load W = 4 kN, of tire diameter
d = 790 mm, tire width b = 220 mm, and tire ination pres-
sure p = 150 kPa. In this paper we present the variation of
the relative wheel mobility number with tire width and with
tire diameter.
The relative wheel mobility is computed for the tire width
as an input variable taking the values 214 mm, 218 mm,
220 mm, 223 mm, 225 mm and 226 mm, and keeping all
the other parameters xed. Fig. 2 shows the variation of
the relative mobility number with tire width for the mobility
number formulations by Freitag, Turnage, Brixius, Row-
land, and Maclaurin. It is clear that the relative mobility
number is equal to 1 for the nominal tire width value of
220 mm for all formulations. Although the slope of each rel-
ative mobility number versus tire width is slightly dierent,
all models indicate the same trend.
The relative wheel mobility is next computed for the tire
diameter as an input variable taking the values 775 mm,
780 mm, 785 mm, 790 mm, 795 mm and 800 mm, and keep-
ing all the other parameters xed. Fig. 3 shows the variation
of the relative mobility number with tire diameter for the
306 S. Hegazy, C. Sandu / Journal of Terramechanics 50 (2013) 303310

Table 1 tire diameter is slightly dierent, all models indicate the

Experimental data obtained by testing a tire of size 7.5-R16 at dierent same trend.
vertical loads and tire ination pressure values.
Tire Vertical load, Tire width, Tire Tire height, 4.2. Investigation of the eect of soil strength and tire
pressure W (kN) b (mm) diameter, d h (mm)
(kPa) (mm)
geometry on the wheel numeric
100 2 214 715 161
3 218 698 153
To investigate the eect of soil strength and tire param-
4 221 682 146 eters as dependent variables on the wheel numeric, a
5 223 669 140 theoretical study of the tested tire parameters (as given in
6 225 655 134 Table 1) and soil strength is conducted based on Eq. (1).
150 2 210 737 171
3 213 723 165 4.2.1. Eect of the soil strength on the wheel numeric
4 215 712 160 The soil cone index CI is varied from 100 to 500 kPa
5 217 703 156
while all the other parameters are xed in Eq. (1), as shown
6 220 689 150
in Table 3, for a tire ination pressure of 100 kPa. The var-
200 2 209 742 173 iation of the wheel numeric with the soil strength is shown
3 211 733 169
in Fig. 4. As the soil strength increases, the wheel numeric
4 214 723 165
5 215 718 163 increases linearly and thus the mobility number increases
6 217 711 160 linearly.
250 2 209 748 175
3 211 740 172 4.2.2. Eect of the tire width on the wheel numeric
4 212 733 169 The tire width is used as a dependent variable while the
5 214 725 166 soil strength is xed in Eq. (1) at a CI = 400 kPa. The val-
6 216 718 163 ues obtained from the tests performed with a tire pressure
of 100 kPa, as shown in Table 1, are used here. For ease of
reference, the values of the tire load and tire width corre-
Table 2 sponding to the 100 kPa tire ination pressure are included
Tire parameters at dierent loads and pressures [17]. again in Table 4, together with the corresponding values
Tire size Tire Tire Tire Tire Tire Tire for the tire diameter, and the wheel numeric obtained for
load pressure diameter width height deection each respective case. The variation of the wheel numeric
(kN) (kPa) (mm) (mm) (mm) (%)
with the tire width, for the values in Table 4, is shown in
12.5-15 10 142 876 313 247 19.03 Fig. 5.
20 284 21.26
It can be seen that, as the tire width increases, the wheel
13.5-17.5 10 101 948 343 260 18.46 numeric decreases nonlinearly. This result may seem coun-
20 303 17.5 terintuitive, but one needs to remember that in this case
30 485 17.31
study the tire width is not an independent variable. The
12.00-R18 10 101 892 317 218 26.83 values of the tire width illustrated in Fig. 5 have been
20 202 25.69
obtained, as shown in Table 4, for increasing values of
30 303 24.4
40 404 22.02
the tire load, W, from 2 to 6 kN. Indeed, as the tire load
50 505 19.37 increases, the width of the tire, b, will increase. The increase
in tire load will have as an indirect eect the decrease in the
7.5-16 10 404 792 209 194 17.02
13 456 19.07 wheel numeric, N, since W appears at the denominator of
N. Furthermore, the increase in the tire load has the eect
12.00-16 10 142 860 309 228 21.27
20 284 23.25
of reducing the tire diameter, d, as also shown in Table 4,
which in turn will have the eect of decreasing the wheel
12.00-18 10 142 920 314 231 22.51
numeric N, since d appears at the numerator of N in Eq.
20 233 27.71
25 375 24.68 (1). Thus, according to the wheel numeric of Eq. (1), if
the tire width were an independent variable, the wheel
400-17.5 10 81 854 391 206 30.1
20 203 30.83
numeric N should increase when the tire width b increases.
Since the tire width is a dependent variable, though, as
explained above, the relationship with the wheel numeric
is as shown in Fig. 5.
mobility number formulations by Freitag, Turnage, Brixius,
Rowland, and Maclaurin. The relative mobility number is 4.2.3. Eect of the tire diameter on the wheel numeric
equal to 1 for the nominal tire diameter value of 790 mm The tire diameter is used as a dependent variable, as pro-
for all formulations. As for the previous case study, vided in Table 4, while the soil strength is xed in Eq. (1) at
although the slope of each relative mobility number versus CI = 400 kPa and the ination pressure is 100 kPa. The var-
 S. Hegazy, C. Sandu / Journal of Terramechanics 50 (2013) 303310 307

Fig. 4. Variation of wheel numeric with soil cone index.

Fig. 2. Variation of relative mobility number with tire width.

Table 4
Tire parameters used to study the eect of the dependent tire width, tire
diameter, and tire load on the wheel numeric.
W Width, b Diameter, d CI Wheel numeric,
(kN) (mm) (mm) (kPa) N
2 214 715 400 30.6
3 218 698 400 20.3
4 221 682 400 15.0
5 223 669 400 11.9
6 225 655 400 9.8

the wheel numeric decreases nonlinearly. Again, although

Fig. 3. Variation of relative mobility number with tire diameter. it was expected to see a decrease in the wheel numeric with
the increase in the tire load, the nonlinearity is due to the
fact that the tire load is a dependent variable here, inuenc-
iation of the wheel numeric with the tire diameter, using the
ing in the same time the tire width and the tire diameter.
values given in Table 4, is shown in Fig. 6. As the tire diam-
eter increases, the wheel numeric increases nonlinearly. This
4.2.5. Eect of the tire ination pressure on the wheel
is interesting to notice, since, if the study were done with an
numeric
independent tire diameter, the relationship between the
The test data for this analysis was published in [17]. The
wheel numeric and the tire diameter, according to Eq. (1),
tire used was of size 12-R18. According to [17], the tire
would have been linear. The nonlinearity in Fig. 6 can be
ination pressure is varied from 101 kPa to 505 kPa. The
explained by the indirect eect of the increase in the tire load
soil strength is kept constant, with a cone index of
(for which the decrease in the tire diameter values consid-
CI = 400 kPa and the tire load is varied from 10 kN to
ered here occurred, as well as the increase in the tire width).
50 kN. The tire width and the tire diameter values used
to compute the wheel numeric in Eq. (1) have been
4.2.4. Eect of the tire load on the wheel numeric
obtained for each of the tire ination pressures. The varia-
The weight on the tire is varied from 2 kN to 6 kN and is
tion of the wheel numeric with the tire ination pressure
used as a dependent variable as illustrated in Table 4, while
using the values shown in Table 5 is shown in Fig. 8. As
the soil strength is xed in Eq. (1) at CI = 400 kPa and the
the tire pressure increases, the wheel numeric decreases
ination pressure is 100 kPa. The variation of the wheel
nonlinearly. This behavior is as expected; it is commonly
numeric with the tire load, using the values shown in Table
known that a reduced ination pressure improves mobility
4, is presented in Fig. 7. As the load on the tire increases,
on soft soil. The nonlinearity can be explained through the
fact that the variation in the ination pressure inuences
both the tire width, and the tire diameter, but in opposite
Table 3
Tire parameters used to study the eect of soil strength on the wheel directions; both parameters, though, appear in the numer-
numeric. ator of the wheel numeric.
W Width, b Diameter, d CI Wheel numeric,
(kN) (mm) (mm) (kPa) N 4.3. Proposed wheel mobility number
2 214 715 100 7.65
2 214 715 200 15.31 Using the experimental results and the theoretical study,
2 214 715 300 22.96 a proposed wheel mobility number is introduced in Eq. (8);
2 214 715 400 30.62 it depends on the wheel numeric and on the square root of
2 214 715 500 38.27
the dierence between tire section height and tire deection
308 S. Hegazy, C. Sandu / Journal of Terramechanics 50 (2013) 303310

traction ratio (drawbar pull ratio), motion resistance ratio,

and tractive eciency, based on Brixus [8] equations:

The gross traction (GT) ratio is expressed in

GT
ltr 0:881  e0:1N HS 1  e0:75s 0:04 9
W

The motion resistance (MR) ratio is dened as the

resistance of soil to wheel movement divided by tire
Fig. 5. Variation of wheel numeric with tire width. load, and is expressed in

MR 1 0:5s
lmrr p 0:04 10
W N HS N HS
The net traction (NT) is a force in the direction of
travel developed by the traction device and trans-
ferred to the vehicle. The net traction ratio is
expressed in

Fig. 6. Variation of wheel numeric with tire diameter.
(R1, as shown in Fig. 9) divided by tire diameter. The coef-
cient of the proposed wheel numeric has been determined
based on results given in Table 1 and soil strength with
400 kPa. A comparison between dierent coecients inves-
tigated by authors [4,9,10,13] and the proposed wheel
numeric coecient is given in Tables 35. The proposed
results are very close to Rowland and Peel [14,15] and also
equivalent to the average coecients obtained by other
researchers [4,9,10,13], especially at low pressure.
CIbd
N HS  k HS
W
r r 8 in Tables 6, 7, and 8 respectively.
hd R1
k HS
d d
where kHS is the proposed coecient, R1 is the loaded
height, and d is the tire diameter, as shown in Fig. 9.
Using the proposed wheel numeric given in Eq. (8), the
vehicle performance has been investigated in terms of net
NT
lntr ltr  lmrr
W  
1 0:5s
0:881  e0:1N HS 1  e0:75s  p 11
N HS N HS
The tractive eciency (TE) of a driving wheel is dened
as the ratio of the output power to the input power. By
dividing both numerator and denominator by tire load
and substituting the actual speed and theoretical speed with
(1  s). TE is expressed in
NT =W
TE 1  s 12
GT =W
The wheel numeric proposed has been computed
according to their respective Eqs. (3)(8) for tire ination
pressures of 100 kPa, 150 kPa, and 200 kPa, and presented
One may notice that the proposed wheel numeric coe-
cient decreases with an increase in tire load, while the other
coecients increase. This is not an error, since these coe-
cients have only been developed to bring the estimated vehi-
cle performance parameters closer to the experimentally
collected data. As it can be seen in Figs. 10 and 11, the pro-
posed coecient performs the best among all of those ana-
lyzed, providing the best prediction of the vehicle mobility.

Table 5
Tire parameters used to study the eect of the tire ination pressure on the
wheel numeric.
CI Pressure Load Width, b Diameter, d Wheel
(kPa) (kPa) (kN) (m) (m) numeric, N
400 101 10 0.317 0.892 11.3106
400 202 20 0.317 0.892 5.65528
400 303 30 0.317 0.892 3.77019
400 404 40 0.317 0.892 2.82764
400 505 50 0.317 0.892 2.26211
Fig. 7. Variation of wheel numeric with tire load.
 S. Hegazy, C. Sandu / Journal of Terramechanics 50 (2013) 303310 309

Table 8
Wheel numeric coecient values for a tire pressure of 200 kPa.
Tire Brixius, Freitag, Maclaurin, Rowland, Proposed,
load, W kB kF kM kR kHS
(kN)
2 0.698822 0.240424 0.230061078 0.290770739 0.46857
3 0.711417 0.255125 0.239129085 0.307547186 0.46415
4 0.73852 0.280692 0.255634159 0.336956946 0.458387
5 0.753202 0.293069 0.26344518 0.351203953 0.455418
6 0.766932 0.306186 0.2708456 0.365875861 0.451468

Fig. 8. Variation of the wheel numeric with tire ination pressure at

dierent tire loads.

Fig. 9. Tire deection. Fig. 10. Variation of net traction ratio with slip ratio (load 2 kN, pressure
100 kPa).

Table 6
Wheel numeric coecient values for a tire pressure of 100 kPa.
Tire Brixius, Freitag, Maclaurin, Rowland, Proposed,
load, W kB kF kM kR kHS
(kN)
2 0.739816 0.284157 0.256203347 0.340548532 0.454838
3 0.752684 0.302495 0.264203806 0.360218043 0.446124
4 0.785133 0.331042 0.27922978 0.392040176 0.436468
5 0.803812 0.348466 0.286669477 0.410929736 0.428657
6 0.841889 0.376552 0.300444079 0.442051623 0.418886

Table 7
Wheel numeric coecient values for a tire pressure of 150 kPa.
Tire Brixius, Freitag, Maclaurin, Rowland, Proposed,
load, W kB kF kM kR kHS Fig. 11. Variation of tractive eciency with slip ratio (load 2 kN, pressure
(kN) 100 kPa).
2 0.712722 0.253629 0.239096153 0.306211053 0.46581
3 0.740147 0.280692 0.255873741 0.337193768 0.458387
4 0.754439 0.295804 0.263887452 0.354035526 0.452704
5 0.769029 0.310087 0.271458899 0.369908853 0.447722
6 0.8004 0.33665 0.285759565 0.399563787 0.439228

Fig. 10 shows the variation of the net traction ratio with

longitudinal slip for a tire load of 2 kN at the ination pres-
sure of 100 kPa. A comparison between our experimental
results and numerical results predicted by dierent authors
is shown in this gure. It is easy to notice that the experi-
mental results obtained in this study with the proposed
wheel numeric coecient are closer to those presented by
Rowland and Peel [14,15] more than to the others; they Fig. A1. Single wheel tester [16].
310 S. Hegazy, C. Sandu / Journal of Terramechanics 50 (2013) 303310
are also in excellent correlation with the prediction per-
formed using the proposed wheel numeric.
Fig. 11 shows the variation of the tractive eciency with
the slip of the driving wheel at dierent wheel mobility
numbers: the one proposed in this study, Rowland, Frei-
tag, and Brixius [4,8,9,14,15]. The tractive eciency
reaches a maximum at a relatively low slip, especially for
high wheel mobility numbers, and then decreases with
increasing slip. The output results are compared with
results from [8] and a good agreement has been obtained.
5. Conclusions
The wheel mobility number, which is calculated by mul-
tiplying the wheel numeric by a wheel numeric coecient is
a dimensionless variable used to predict the vehicle perfor-
mance. Dierent researchers proposed various expressions
of the wheel numeric coecient. The soil strength and the
tire parameters used in this study were obtained experimen-
tally; this includes the eects of tire ination pressure on
tire width, tire section height, and tire deection at dierent
tire loads. Using the data collected, a theoretical analysis
has been carried out to investigate the eects of these
dependent parameters on the wheel numeric, and thus,
implicitly, on the wheel mobility number. The results
showed that the wheel numeric increases nonlinearly when
the tire load decreases, the tire diameter increases, the tire
pressure decreases, and the tire width decreases. While
not intuitive, since the tire parameters used were not inde-
pendent, these results accurately reect the data experimen-
tally collected. For soil strength, the wheel numeric
increases linearly when the soil strength increases.
In an eort to improve the prediction of vehicle mobility
and performance through the use of the wheel mobility
number, a new wheel numeric coecient is introduced in
this study. It has been obtained based on the theoretical
analysis presented and the experimental testing conducted.
The proposed wheel numeric coecient, which is the
square root of the ratio between the tire loaded height
and the tire diameter under the same loading conditions,
has been investigated for dierent tire loads and sizes,
and compared with results given by other wheel numeric
studies. The proposed wheel numeric coecient decreases
with the increase in tire load for all tire ination pressures
for which it was computed, while the other wheel numeric
coecients increase. Since these coecients were proposed
with the only purpose of tting the experimental data, there
is no real signicance in their increase or decrease with the
tire load.
The proposed wheel mobility number has been used to
investigate the vehicle performance in terms of the net trac-
tion ratio and tractive eciency. The results for the net
traction ratio show an excellent correlation with the exper-
imental data, much better than the results obtained with
other wheel mobility numbers. The tractive eciency has
been benchmarked against results obtained from other
studies and it shows that the eciency calculated with the
proposed number ts well within the range of values
obtained by other studies, and it is closer to the one calcu-
lated based on Rowlands wheel mobility number.
Appendix A
See Fig. A1.
References
[1] Bekker MG. O-the-road locomotion, research and development in
terramechanics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; 1960. p.
220s.
[2] Bekker MG. Introduction to terrain-vehicle systems. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press; 1969. p. 846s.
[3] Wismer RD, Luth HJ. O-road traction prediction for wheeled
vehicles. Trans ASABE 1974;17(1):000800010.
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