Re: [GZG] AFV ground pressure ( was Re: New to the list, and 2 questions: lift/jump infantry)

> If I believe them (I'm a bit skeptical), tire pressure
> in a car = ground
> pressure. I'm skeptical because I find it hard to
> imagine my car can run
> anywhere from 28 - 35 PSI bearing the same weight of car on
> slightly
> different performance tires of the same general
> dimensions... I didn't think
> the contact patch changed that much.

Actually, even with the exact same tires you can have a wide range of
ground pressures (although not THAT wide, I would say). It all depends
on the internal pressure of air within the tire: Too little pressure
increases the contact surface (thus reducing ground pressure), while too
much internal pressure reduces it. And to make things even more
complicated, the pressure changes with temperature and the tires get
warmer the longer you drive, so there is also a bit of change with
continuous use.

(ok, more thread-jacking) In the case of cars more air pressure is
better (of course, up to a limit) because it has some influence in the
gas mileage: more contact surface means more friction, and therefore
more fuel consumption.

As a response to Jon, and getting a bit back into topic, from what I
know tracks do distribute the weight better, but have more "damage
potential": turning or making (relatively) tight sudden maneuvers can
damage the road. It has more to do with total weight that the tracks
themselves, but a chunk of steel directly in contact with the pavement
does degrade it (while the opposite happens with tires).

While working in college for my design project we had some discussions
about the runways that C-5s and An-224 (the really really huge one)
could use (some very interesting real life examples there). And I do not
know how tanks entered into the discussion, so (naturally) some research
had to be done :) 

no more threadjacking (for now) but could not resist

David



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