Vibration and ride comfort studies on a tracked vehicle

This paper describes a field test conducted on a military tracked vehicle. The accelerations experienced at selected locations on the vehicle for four different types of terrain were recorded and analysed in spectral and statistical modes. The first few natural frequencies of the vehicle were obtained using an in-plane N+2 degree-of-freedom linear dynamic model of the vehicle with two degrees of freedom corresponding to bounce and pitch modes of the hull and N degrees of freedom corresponding to the bounce modes of the N road wheel assemblies. The analytically obtained natural frequencies match with peaks in the experimentally obtained transfer function and acceleration power spectral density curves. From the point of view of crew comfort, acceleration levels encountered in the crew cabin have been compared with those specified in ISO 2631 standard. Ride quality assessment has also been made on the basis of absorbed power.