ANALYTICAL SIMULATION OF TRAVEL RESISTANCE OF THE RUBBER CRAWLER SYSTEM FOR FARM MACHINERY

The mechanism of the inner resistance in a rubber crawler system has been investigated to reduce the power requirement (Kitano et al. 1994). The rolling resistance of the track roller, which is one of the major inner resistances, was measured for seven different vertical loads. The rolling resistance changed periodically and could be classified into three types. In case of the vertical load less than 500N, the rolling resistance was almost constant. For the vertical load greater than 500N, the maximum value of the rolling resistance increased. Further more in case of the vertical load greater than 1200N, negative resistance appeared. Analytical simulation of the travel resistance based on experimental results and static equilibrium equations derived from three-dimension mechanical model for the rubber crawler system. It was found that the simulation method was carried out to evaluate the travel resistance occurred by the rolling resistance of the track roller. The rolling resistance for each track roller arrangement and effects of the lug phase in the right and left rubber crawler could be estimated quantitatively.