Title: Evaluation of the accuracy of the rigid body approach in the prediction of the dynamic stresses of complex multibody systems

Authors: Michael Wallin; Ashraf M. Hamed; Paramsothy Jayakumar; David J. Gorsich; Michael D. Letherwood; Ahmed A. Shabana

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 842 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 842 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA ' US Army TARDEC, 6501 E. 11 Mile Road, Warren, MI 48397-5000, USA ' US Army TARDEC, 6501 E. 11 Mile Road, Warren, MI 48397-5000, USA ' US Army TARDEC, 6501 E. 11 Mile Road, Warren, MI 48397-5000, USA ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 842 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA

Abstract: In this paper, the floating frame of reference and absolute nodal coordinate formulations (ANCF) are explained in detail and used in the stress analysis of the track links in a complex three-dimensional tracked vehicle model. One of the most common areas of failure for such tracked vehicles is attributed to the failure of the track link chains, and therefore, performing a detailed fully coupled stress analysis, as the one described in this investigation, is necessary in order to obtain more accurate stress results and avoid failure of such complex vehicle systems.

Keywords: multibody system dynamics; floating frame of reference; FFR; absolute nodal coordinate formulation; ANCF; tracked vehicles; rigid body approach; dynamic stresses; stress analysis; track links; vehicle modelling; 3D modelling; link failure; track link chains.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVP.2016.075351

International Journal of Vehicle Performance, 2016 Vol.2 No.2, pp.140 - 165

Received: 08 Aug 2015
Accepted: 11 Nov 2015
Published online: 15 Mar 2016 *

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