A Review of Soil Dynamics in Traction Studies

As the world population increases more than ever before and increasing demand on food, feed and fiber, and security, the number of off-the-road vehicles is rapidly increasing for agriculture, forestry, military, mining and construction industries. Many researchers have studied and still investigating traction as it relates off-road vehicles and publications abound especially from developed countries of Europe, America and others. In our generation scientists are trying to put robotic vehicles on the lunar and Martian terrains. This trend makes the study of soil dynamics in traction a sine qua non in our tertiary and research institutions. In Nigeria there is a dearth of publications in this specialized area of study. This is a review paper and the purpose is to highlight some of the studies that have been conducted over the years, with a view to enlightening, encouraging, stimulating and challenging would be researchers. Trends in the development of soil bin with single wheel testers were reviewed including tractive and transport devices used in them. Traction parameters including motion resistance, measurement and data acquisition systems, traction predictive equations including wheel numeric and mobility numbers were also reviewed. Efforts made in the development of soil bin for soil dynamics research and further research interest at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) were highlighted.