Current political climates have generated a renewed interest in the northern regions of the world. These areas are known to have soft marshy peat, highly organic soils, and cold harsh winter climates. Currently vehicle mobility modeling capability on this terrain is limited and existing studies do not include current military vehicles. This work presents mobility experiments of current military vehicles at multiple field sites containing peat or highly organic soils that can eventually be used to improve mobility modeling on these soils. Field work is being conducted during multiple seasons including winter, spring, and summer. The vehicle traction, motion resistance, and hard surface rolling resistance of an instrumented High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) and a Small Unit Support Vehicle (SUSV) were examined. The first is a common multipurpose vehicle and the second is a vehicle designed to operate in these types of environments. Preliminary analysis of the field test results will be discussed in this paper.

Frost heaving is a constant burden on any facility in cold regions, causing accelerated deterioration of roadways and annual maintenance, leading to costly repairs. Insulated pavements have been demonstrated as cost effective in several civilian locations, and have shown exceptional resistance to compression and water absorption. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of insulated pavement in eliminating the impact of frost action on roadways for the purpose of reducing annual roadway maintenance and redefining the standards governing its application.An insulating layer of extruded polystyrene (XPS) was installed in a section of road at Fort McCoy, WI. The monthly temperature and moisture content gradients were compared between the insulated and non-insulated pavements. The change in elastic moduli was also compared between the two pavement sections over the 2017 -2018 winter freeze and spring thaw cycle. The insulating layer was shown to be effective in preventing frost from penetrating the subgrade. Temperatures remained above freezing in the subgrade throughout the winter. The vertical moisture gradient demonstrated minimal signs of frost penetration. The presence of a high water table beneath the test pavement sections are believed to have affected the strength of the subgrade, especially through the post spring thaw recovery period.

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