Sliding Stability of Cable-Assisted Tracked Equipment on Steep Slopes

Details

• Personal Author:
  Belart F ; Chung W ; Green P ; Leshchinsky B ; Morrissette B ; Sessions J ; Wimer J
• Description:
  The increasing use of cable-assisted steep-slope harvesting has presented different operational, safety, and environmental opportunities and challenges. One of the primary benefits is the increased safety introduced when tethered equipment is used appropriately-notably, "appropriate" use is the use of cable tension for assistance, not stability. However, the stability of such equipment on realistic soils under wet or dry conditions is not well defined, blurring the transition between tethering as a safety measure or as an aid for traction. Therefore, we propose an approach that enables assessment of the stability and required tensions to ensure stable equipment operation under various configurations on steep slopes. A sensitivity analysis was performed, including two equipment track geometric parameters: track width and grouser depth, and soil properties by evaluating two distinctive soil types. Equipment geometry had a role in stability, but less than the influence of soil shear strength. For equipment properties, grouser depth presented the greatest effect on stability, concentrated between slopes of 36-70 percent. Greater soil moisture increases equipment stability in sandy loams and significantly decreases stability in clay loams. When the effects of soil properties are isolated, cohesion and angle of friction are the properties with the greatest effect on equipment stability. A correction to this article has been published: https://doi.org/10.1093/forsci/fxy064. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Forestry Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Tethered Environmental Impacts Equipment Testing Forest Harvesting Logging Industry Risk Factors Safety Engineering Slope Stability Stability Steep Slope

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• ISSN:
  0015-749X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  304-311
• Volume:
  65
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060725
• Citation:
  For Sci 2019 Jun; 65(3):304-311
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Performing Organization:
  Oregon State University - Corvallis
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20150901
• Source Full Name:
  Forest Science
• End Date:
  20180831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5b02a18d6404a270b659e08dd9d26615fd0eeabe42c38bdd91536cfeb542b75921cea87d828828e733997299dda86fc10f2ce4b948b1f4b6eb39f2ec7ef4276e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224554/cdc_224554_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 230.01 KB ]