A compliant track link model for high-speed,high-mobility tracked vehicles

Abstract

Several modelling methods have recently been developed for the dynamic analysis of low-speed trackedvehicles. These methods were used to demonstrate the signiÿcant eect of the force of the interaction be-tween the track links and vehicle components, even when low speeds are considered. It is the objective ofthis investigation to develop compliant track link models and investigate the use of these models in the dy-namic analysis of high-speed, high-mobility tracked vehicles. There are two major diculties encountered indeveloping the compliant track models discussed in this paper. The ÿrst is due to the fact that the integrationstep size must be kept small in order to maintain the numerical stability of the solution. This solution includeshigh oscillatory signals resulting from the impulsive contact forces and the use of sti compliant elementsto represent the joints between the track links. The characteristics of the compliant elements used in thisinvestigation to describe the track joints are measured experimentally. A numerical integration method havinga relatively large stability region is employed in order to maintain the solution accuracy, and a variable stepsize integration algorithm is used in order to improve the eciency. The second diculty encountered in thisinvestigation is due to the large number of the system equations of motion of the three-dimensional multibodytracked vehicle model. The dimensionality problem is solved by decoupling the equations of motion of thechassis subsystem and the track subsystems. Recursive methods are used to obtain a minimum set of equationsfor the chassis subsystem. Several simulations scenarios including an accelerated motion, high-speed motion,braking, and turning motion of the high-mobility vehicle are tested in order to demonstrate the eectivenessand validity of the methods proposed in this investigation. Copyright ? 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.