The effect of up-armoring of the high-mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV) on the off-road vehicle performance

Purpose - A parallel finite-element/multi-body-dynamics investigation is carried out of the effect of up-armoring on the off-road performance of a prototypical high-mobility multipurpose-wheeled vehicle (HMMWV). The paper seeks to investigate the up-armoring effect on the vehicle performance under the following off-road maneuvers: straight-line flatland braking; straight-line off-angle downhill braking; and sharp left turn. Design/methodology/approach - For each of the above-mentioned maneuvers, the appropriate vehicle-performance criteria are identified and the parameters used to quantify these criteria are defined and assessed. The ability of a computationally efficient multi-body dynamics approach when combined with a detailed model for tire/soil interactions to yield results qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with their computational counterparts obtained using computationally quite costly finite element analyses is assessed. Findings - The computational results obtained clearly reveal the compromises in vehicle off-road performance caused by the up-armoring employ to improve vehicle blast and ballistic protection performance/survivability. The results obtained are also analyzed and explained in terms of general field-test observations in order to judge physical soundness and fidelity of the present computational approaches. Originality/ value - The paper offers insights into the effects of up-armoring of the HMMWV on off-road vehicle performance.