Dynamic ground pressure prediction of heavy-duty construction vehicles considering crawler parameters

(importance) Ground pressure is an important parameter for the designs of various vehicle; it is important to get an accurate ground pressure distribution to protect the foundation and maintain safe operation of the equipment. However, the actual ground pressure distribution has been simplified in the existing mathematical model, and the influence of the track device on the ground pressure has been ignored. What’s more, the real ground pressure is always difficult to be measured owing to various factors. (objectives) In order to solve above questions, this paper establishes its longitudinal (the driving direction) and lateral (perpendicular to the driving direction) mathematical models, respectively. (Methodology) By combining the established mathematical equations, the ground pressure at different moments could be computed more easily and accurately. To further verify the correctness of the proposed model, a three-dimensional prototype model of the crawler vehicle was built in Solidworks, and the dynamic ground pressures were obtained by RecurDyn software at the same time. (findings) Taking a large spreader as an example, the influences of the crawler parameters on ground pressure (maximum, minimum and average) were studied and analyzed in detail. The results show that the maximum ground pressure increases by 0.064 MPa when the distance between track rollers increases by 200 mm. In addition, the maximum ground pressure decreases by 0.085 MPa when the rollers' number increases by 2. With a 60 mm increase of the track shoe width, the maximum ground pressure decreases by 0.053 MPa. The maximum ground pressure decreases by 0.050 MPa when the tensioning force increases by 600kN. But the fluctuate of the minimum value of the ground pressure is not obvious. More importantly, the real ground pressure cannot be replaced by average ground pressure during the working of vehicles. This research can lay a good foundation for the designs of crawler vehicles and provide the help to ensure the safety and economy of vehicles.