A study on bullock carts. Part 1. Engineering analysis of the two-wheel bullock cart design

Abstract

An engineering analysis of the design of two-wheel bullock carts has been carried out with the aid of a mathematical model. Non-dimensional expressions for the pull and the neck load have been developed. In the first instance, the cart is assumed to be cruising at constant velocity on a terrain with the effective coefficient of rolling friction varying over a wide range (0.001 to 0.5) and the gradient varying between +0.2 to −0.2. Subsequently, the effect of inertia force due to an acceleration parallel to the ground is studied. In the light of this analysis, two modifications to the design of the cart have been proposed and the relative merits of the current designs and the proposed designs are discussed