Soil Mechanics–Based Testbed Setup for Lunar Rover Wheel and Corresponding Experimental Investigations
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 30, Issue 6
Abstract
This paper introduces a testbed developed from a perspective of soil mechanics that not only focused on wheel design and optimization but also considered the elimination of the boundary effect caused by a soil bin. Using this testbed, a series of experimental investigations were performed by changing the wheel rotational velocity, vertical load, and towed load. Tracks were generated at a regular spacing as the wheel lugs enter and exit the soil periodically. It has been found that there is a relationship between the track length and wheel slip ratio regardless of different mechanical properties of soil. The wheel rotational velocity has little effect on the driving torque and sinkage. The towed load affects the driving torque more than the sinkage. However, the vertical load effects on the driving torque and sinkage are similar. The current models used for parameter estimations may not be appropriate for Tongji-1 lunar soil simulant, which has a relatively high internal friction angle according to the experimental results. But the internal friction angle and cohesion can still be estimated with proper selection of shear deformation modulus.
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Acknowledgments
The research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China with Grants 51179128 and 51579178, and State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering (No. 300 SLDRCE14-A-04), all of which are sincerely appreciated.
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Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 30 • Issue 6 • November 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 23, 2016
Accepted: Apr 21, 2017
Published online: Aug 30, 2017
Published in print: Nov 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jan 30, 2018
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