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A study of soil disturbance and compaction resulting from the use of ground-based logging vehicles in the Sierra Nevada

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  • Some results of a study conducted in the Sierra Nevada Mountains west of Lake Tahoe are reported. The study measured soil impacts resulting from the use of a Caterpillar Tractor model D6D, a John Deere wheeled skidder model JD-640, and an FMC Corporation model FMC 21OCA logging vehicle. The three vehicles were operated under carefully controlled conditions on straight 30.48 meter (100 feet) by 3.66 meter (12 feet) test strips. Three test strips were established for each machine on four sites to permit an analysis of the impacts of the machines through a range of soil moisture contents and soil types. Measurements of soil compaction were made after 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, and 20 passes with a load of logs through the test strip followed by a return through the test strip unloaded. Only the impacts resulting from 20 complete trips are presented in this paper. Two tools were tested to determine suitability for use as instruments to predict soil compaction. The Gus probe, a new tool designed for the study utilizing the energy derived from a weight falling through a constant distance to drive a 3.8 cm (1.5 in.) diameter foot into the ground, failed to generate useful predictive models. A cone penetrometer, the second tool tested, did generate a significant predictive model. CDO8 = 0.2631 - 0.0001022(C16) R2 7339 where: CDO8 = the change in soil density, in g/cc, resulting from 20 trips of the logging vehicles, averaged to the 20.3 cm (8 in.) layer. C16 = the cone index, in kPa, required to push the cone tip to the 15.2 cm (6 in.) depth. Graphs of soil densities attained after 20 trips by each machine for the four sites are presented along with curves depicting the change in densities. Greatest compaction resulted from the tractor on the slightly cohesive sites at depths greater than five cm (2 in.) with little differences between machines being observed at the five cm depth. Little differences in compaction were observed between machines at depths greater than five cm on the cohesionless sites. The FMC compacted the loose cohesionless five cm depth the least. The skidder compacted the dense cohesionless site the least. Soil disturbance, defined as a combination of soil displacement and soil compaction, is quantified. The tractor displaced 1.9 times more soil than the FMC and the skidder displaced 1.2 times more soil than the FMC. Appropriate equilibrium equations of motion are derived to quantify the pressures along the bottom of the tracks of the tractor and FMC and on the bottom of the tires of the skidder. The pressure distributions encountered in the study are presented.
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