The sinkage characteristics and the supporting capacity of a submerged floating vehicle driving in deep soft terrains

A submerged floating vehicle, which is utilized in deep soft terrains, has a superior trafficability to those of traditional vehicles. This study focuses on understanding and improving the sinkage characteristics of a submerged floating vehicle travelling on deep soft clay. The factors which influence the sinkage characteristics were analysed, and a soil bin experimental model was established using the similarity theory. A series of experiments was designed for carrying out tests on the sinkage with respect to the pressure, the sliding speed, the aspect ratio and the moisture content of the soil. The experimental results show that the sinkage of the floating device sliding increased with increasing moisture content of the soil. They also show that the sinkage increases with increasing pressure and decreases with increasing aspect ratio of the floating device. By analysing the problems and the challenges which exist in an empirical formula or a semiempirical formula when facing the sinkage of a floating device, a support vector machine for a regression model is proposed in order to construct a multiple non-linear regressive prediction model using experimental data. Further evidence was provided to substantiate the merits of the application of the support vector regression method when dealing with the issue of predicting the sinkage.