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Dynamic modelling and stability analysis of the articulated tracked vehicle considering transient track-terrain interaction

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Abstract

Articulated tracked vehicles (ATVs) exhibit enhanced steerability but reduced yaw stability. Apart from the track-terrain contact, the dynamics of the articulated frame steering (AFS) system strongly influences the stability of ATVs. We developed a detailed hydraulic steering system and a yaw-plane ATVs model for vehicle stability research. The transient characteristic of track-ground contact was considered. The multibody dynamics model by Recurdyn/Track software was compared with the established model to verify the model correctness at time-domain and frequency-domain. The result suggests that the vehicle yaw stability can be evaluated in terms of the oscillation frequency, damping ratio, overshoot, and steady-state deviation of articulation angle response. A multi-objective optimization is proposed to obtain the optimized structural parameters of AFS system by employing response surface method (RSM) and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II). The optimal solutions revealed that more compact mechanism design of AFS system contributes to a compromise stability performance with 4.44 % decrease in the oscillation frequency and 10.3 % decrease in the damping ratio.

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Abbreviations

A a :

Ratio of the area of flow orifices

A c, A r :

Effective area of piston and chamber of cylinder(cm2)

A ti :

Single-track shoe bottom area (m2)

b :

Width of the track elements

B, B′:

Track treads of the front and rear vehicle (m)

B eff :

Effective bulk modulus of the hydraulic fluid (GPa)

c :

Soil cohesion (kPa)

C q :

Flow coefficient

D m :

Ratio of the cycloidal motor displacement to the volume of flow fluid

f r :

Rolling friction coefficient

f v :

Viscous coefficient of the oil fluid

F f :

Rolling friction force (N)

F L, F R :

Force created by left strut and right cylinder (N)

F xj, F yj :

Longitudinal and lateral shearing force created by jth track (N)

K :

Shearing deformation modulus (m)

k L :

Coefficient of leakage

L, L′:

Track-terrain contact length of ATVs (m)

L f, L r :

Distance between the centroid of front and rear vehicle and the articulation point (m)

M df, M dr :

External disturbance moment acting on front vehicle (N.m)

M hf, M hr :

Moment produced by the hydraulic steering force acting on front vehicle

P i j :

The contact force acting on the road wheels (N)

P sij :

The static contact force acting on the road wheels (N)

P xij :

The contact force acting on the road wheels resulted by the longitudinal acceleration (N)

P yij :

The contact force acting on the road wheels resulted by the lateral acceleration (N)

q in :

Flow rate of fluid from the steering valve to the steering struts (m3)

q out :

Flow rate of fluid from the steering strut to the reservoir (m3)

r s :

Radius of the sleeve (m)

R i :

Radius of the orifices (m)

x i :

The sequence number of the track elements

x ij :

The coordinate of the load wheels respective to the geometry center of the vehicle

X d :

The displacement difference of the sleeve respect to the spool (m)

X i :

The relative displacement of the sleeve respect to the spool respect with orifices (m)

X i0 :

The dead band of ith orifices (m)

θ max :

The maximum relative displacement of the sleeve respect to the spool (rad)

θ sw :

Angle of the steering wheel (rad)

σ i :

Contact force of the track ith element (Pa)

Φ :

Internal shearing angle of the soil (deg)

\(T_x^*\), \(T_y^*\) :

The shear stress of the track shoe cell located at x*

Δx i :

The length of the track elements (m)

ϕ :

Articulation angle (rad)

ω s :

Rotating speed of the sprocket

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant 2016YFC0802703).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130022, China

    Kangle Hu & Kai Cheng

Authors
  1. Kangle Hu
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  2. Kai Cheng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kai Cheng.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor No-cheol Park

Kangle Hu received his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Jilin University in 2016. Now he is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, China. His research interests include vehicle dynamics, vehicle stability, and hydraulic system design.

Kai Cheng received the B.S. and M.S. in 1983 and 1987, and the Ph.D. in Mechanical Design from Jilin University of Technology, Changchun, China. He is currently a Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, China. His research interests include the performance analysis, lightweight design, and reliability of engineering machinery.

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Hu, K., Cheng, K. Dynamic modelling and stability analysis of the articulated tracked vehicle considering transient track-terrain interaction. J Mech Sci Technol 35, 1343–1356 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0301-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0301-1

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