A novel alternate multibody model for the longitudinal and ride dynamics of a tracked vehicle

This paper presents a novel alternate multibody model for a tracked vehicle by replacing the tracks with a set of imaginary wheels. A planar multibody model with imaginary wheels replacing tracks is developed with a nonlinear contact force model for the interaction between the wheel and ground for both hard and soft terrains. The results of the proposed track model are validated with experimental data from the literature as well as with the results from a detailed track model in Adams tracked vehicle software. The paper demonstrates that replacing the tracks with imaginary wheels provides a simple yet realistic alternate model for tracks. The computational cost is reduced significantly and hence one can use this to carry out detailed vehicle performance studies before finalising a design.