Abstract Grousers are commonly used to increase wheel traction, though how grousers exactly influence wheel thrust and resistance, and thus drawbar pull, has continued to remain an open topic of research. This work explores rigid wheels with grousers traveling on homogeneous granular soil. Unique experiments that provide insights into what grousers are doing at various points on a wheel are presented. To perform these experiments, a novel wheel that enables grousers to extend and retract in various regions around the wheel is developed; specifically grousers can always be extended at the front of the wheel but retracted below the wheel, even as the wheel rotates. These experiments show that grousers are much more effective at increasing drawbar pull when they are interacting with soil ahead of the wheel, rather than below it. A wheel with grousers engaging soil only ahead of the wheel, and not below it, nonetheless achieves over 80% of the relative improvement in drawbar pull that a “full grouser” wheel achieves over a grouserless wheel. This reveals how thrust is generated primarily by the front-most grouser, and further suggests that the reduction of resistive forward soil flow also plays a key role in increasing drawbar pull.

中文翻译：

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履带齿通过减少阻力并在车轮前部产生推力来改善牵引杆的拉力

摘要 履带式履带板通常用于增加车轮牵引力，但履带式履带板如何准确影响车轮推力和阻力，从而影响牵引杆拉力，仍然是一个开放的研究课题。这项工作探索了带履带齿在均质颗粒土壤上行驶的刚性车轮。展示了独特的实验，可以深入了解履带板在轮子上的各个点上正在做什么。为了进行这些实验，开发了一种新型轮子，使履带板能够在轮子周围的各个区域伸展和缩回；特别是履带式履带板可以始终在车轮前部伸出，但在车轮下方缩回，即使在车轮旋转时也是如此。这些实验表明，履带式履带板在与车轮前方而非下方土壤相互作用时，在增加牵引杆拉力方面更有效。带有履带齿的车轮仅在车轮前面而不是在其下方接触土壤，但在牵引杆拉力方面实现了 80% 以上的相对改善，这是“全履带齿”车轮比无履带车轮实现的 80% 以上。这揭示了推力是如何主要由最前面的履带齿产生的，并进一步表明阻力向前土壤流动的减少在增加牵引杆拉力方面也起着关键作用。