engleski

Assessment of Environmental Acceptability of Forwarder by Wheel Numeric

This paper presents the research of possibilities of use of wheel numeric, as a satisfying parameter that describes the environmental acceptability of interaction between vehicle wheels and soil in timber extraction. The wheel numeric is a non-dimensional parameter, which describes the interaction between the loaded wheel and soil. This parameter can be easily measured/calculated by simple on-site measurement of soil cone index and by use of semi-empiric expressions for contact pressure. The analysis of the ratio between wheel numeric and rut depth, which can be easily measured and represents the most conspicuous consequence of the vehicle’ s adverse effects on soil, showed that the wheel numeric is a sufficiently good parameter for its assessment and therefore also for the assessment of the environmental acceptability. In order to get a better understanding of this problem, the basic components of the wheel numeric as well as models of different authors for their calculation are exemplified by a 17-ton forwarder Timberjack 1710B. The deficiency of the use of semi-empiric expressions for the calculation of wheel/soil contact pressure, as well as insufficient level of understanding of the dynamic distribution of vertical loads of a forest vehicle in different terrain conditions, especially in timber skidding, require further research in this direction.

forwarder; timber extraction; wheel numeric; environmental acceptability

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