CM 4140 Heavy Construction

Methods
Week 5 Mobile Equipment Power
Requirement
Ahmed Abdelaty, PhD
Fall 2024

9/24/2024 1
Learning Objectives
• Understand how grade and rolling resistance impact
equipment choice
• Understand factors affecting rolling resistance
• Understand the difference between usable and
required rimpull (force)
• Understand how surface traction impact usable or
available rimpull

9/24/2024 2
Introduction
• Construction projects require handling large
quantities of bulk materials
• You must be able to select the proper equipment to
handle any construction activity economically

3
Introduction
• Three factors that affect any material-handling task:
• Total quantity of material
• Rate at which it must be moved
• Size of the individual pieces

4
Introduction
• Selection of machines trade-offs
• Unit production cost vs. mobilization cost
• Larger units tend to have low unit production costs but
higher mobilization cost
• Machine payload:
• In earthwork operations, machine payload capacity is
expressed:
• Volumetric or
• Gravimetric capacity

5
Introduction
• Volumetric capacity:
• Struck capacity
• Heaped capacity, depends on the type of soil (angle of
repose)
• Manufacturer manual:
• Typically, in loose heaped volume

6
Introduction
• Gravimetric capacity:
• Safe operational weight that the axles or structural frame
of the machine can handle
• Overloading trucks:
• Overloading will cause slight increase in time to load and
haul, and fuel consumption
• Will lead to higher production rate and lower unit
production costs
• However, it’s a short term gain considering the cost of
premature aging and excessive maintenance

7
Introduction
• Factors that affect machine performance:
• Cycle time of machine
• Production rate
• Payload
• Power consideration (required, available, and usable)
• Travel speed

8
Required Power
• Required power: power required to overcome
resisting forces and cause machine motion
• Resisting forces:
• Rolling resistance
• Grade resistance
• Rolling resistance: the resistance of a level surface
to constant-velocity motion across it
• Grade resistance: the force opposing the movement
of a machine up a frictionless slope

9
Required Power
• Rolling resistance:
• Measured in lb/ton (pounds of resistance per ton of
machine weight)
• Referred to as wheel resistance or track resistance
• Results from friction of the driving mechanism, tire
flexing, and the force required to ride over supporting
surface

10
Required Power
• Rolling resistance:
• Soft vs. hard surface
• Tire size, pressure, and tread design (narrow or broad)

11
Required Power
• Does rolling resistance remain constant over the
course of earthwork operation?
• Rain and moisture content effect on rolling resistance
• Maintenance of low-rolling resistance haul roads is
strongly encouraged to increase production
• Use graders and water trucks

12
9/24/2024 13
9/24/2024 14
9/24/2024 15
9/24/2024 16
9/24/2024 17
9/24/2024 18
Required Power
• Rolling resistance:
• Rutting on the wheel path
• Tire penetration leads to higher rolling resistance
• Use graders to maintain haul road

19
Required Power
• Rolling resistance versus type of surface

20
Required Power
• Grade Resistance:
• The force opposing the movement of a machine up a
frictionless slope
• If the machine is moving down a sloping road, it is called
grade assistance
• Expressed in %
• 1% slope: surface rises 1’
vertically in a horizontal
distance of 100’
• Going up (+%)
• Going down (-%)

21
Required Power
• Grade Resistance:
• The required tractive support is 20 lb/ton for every 1%
grade (as long as slope is less than 10%)
• Small-angle assumption (sin α = cos α)

22
Required Power
• Grade resistance and required tractive effort

23
Required Power
• Total Resistance:
• Is the sum of rolling and grade resistance/assistance
• Also called the effective grade
• Convert rolling resistance to an equivalent grade
• A rolling resistance equivalent grade is calculated as
follows:
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙/𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
• 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺 (𝐺𝐺𝐺) =
20 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙/𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
• Total resistance, effective grade, and power
required

24
Required Power
• Study the haul routes from the mass diagram and
profile sheets
• Differentiate between the natural ground and design
profiles
• Over the life of the project, grades begin to assume the
design profile

25
Available Power
• Diesel engines are preferred:
• Longer service lives
• Lower fuel consumption
• Less fire hazard
• Work, Torque and Power:
• Work = Force X Distance
• Work occurs when a force or torque move an object
• Torque analogous to force in a rotational system (twisting
force)
• Power is the rate (time) at which work is done
• Power = work/time
26
Available Power
• Horsepower rating:
• Gross or flywheel horsepower (fwhp)
• Net horsepower sometimes called brake horsepower
(bhp)
• Load losses for auxiliary systems (alternator, air conditioner compressors,
and water pump)
• The fwhp can be considered usable power
• The bhp can be considered the available power

27
Available Power
• Rimpull: the tractive force between the tires of a
machine’s driving wheel and the surface on which
they travel
• Usable force at the point of contact between the tire and
the ground – wheel machines
• Rimpull for track machines
• Force available at the drawbar
• Drawbar pull: the available pull that a crawler tractor can
exert on a towed load

28
Available Power
• Rimpull:
• Required rimpull: amount required to move the machine
• Delivered rimpull: the amount of force that may be
applied by the vehicle to the driving surface
• Usable rimpull: the maximum amount of force that may
be developed between the driving wheels and driving
surface

29
Available Power
• Both rimpull and drawbar pull are measured in the
same units, pound pull
• Coefficient of traction (Ct): the factor that
determines the maximum possible tractive force
between the powered running gear of a machine
and the surface on which it travels
• No tire slippage  high Ct
• Driving wheels slip on the supporting surface  you have
to calculate the effective rimpull
• Effective rimpull = total tire pressure x Coefficient of
traction
30
Available Power
• Rimpull is dependent on horsepower, engine
efficiency, and speed
375 × ℎ𝑝𝑝 × 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅(𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙) =
𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 (𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚)
• Typical efficiency is 0.85

31
Usable Power
• Factors that affect the usable power:
• Project conditions – haul road surface condition
• Altitude and temperature
• Usable force = Coefficient of traction x Weight on
powered running gear

32
Usable Power
• Factors that affect the coefficient of traction value:
• Surface type
• Moisture content
• Mounting type (rubber tire or crawler tracks)

33
Performance Charts
• Performance charts:
graphical
representation of
power and
corresponding
speed that an
engine and
transmission of a
mobile machine can
deliver

34
Performance Charts

35
Performance Charts
• Reading performance charts (rimpull known):
• Estimate the rimpull required – total resistance (rolling
and grade)
• Locate the power requirement value on the left vertical
scale
• Draw a horizontal line to the right intersecting the gear
curve
• From the intersection point (horizontal line and gear
curve), draw a vertical line to the bottom of the x-axis
indicating speed

36
Performance Charts
• Reading performance charts (effective grade
known):
• Determine the machine weight (empty and loaded)
• Calculate the total resistance
• Project a line horizontally from the intersection point
between the total resistance and machine weight
• Project a line vertically from the intersection point
between the horizontal line and the gear curve –
determine the speed

37
Performance Charts
• Established assuming standard operating conditions
• Adjustments should be made:
• Higher altitudes 5000 ft or higher

38
Performance Charts
• Retarder performance charts: a graphical
presentation that identifies the controlled speed of
a machine descending a slope when the magnitude
of the grade assistance is greater that the rolling
resistance
• A retarder will not stop the machine, it provide
speed control

39
Performance Charts
• Retarder
chart
• Reading
charts –
same
procedu
re

40
Examples

41