Dynamic Simulation Of Articulated Tracked Vehicle And Lightweight Design Of Key Parts Of Track System

Because of its large grounding contact area and the articulation system that connects the front and rear bodies,articulated tracked vehicle as all-terrain vehicle has an excellent all-terrain traversability,and it has now been widely used.The track system is closely related to the suspension,vehicle frame and the powertrain.It should ensure that the track system maintains sufficient strength and enable it work reliably,which is directly related to the main index of vehicle performance such as the power and safety of the vehicle.In this paper,a type of articulated tracked vehicle is taken as the research subject,and the dynamic parameters of the main key parts of the track system are obtained by dynamic simulation of the typical extreme working condition of the whole vehicle.Based on the finite element theory and the results of dynamic simulation,this paper makes finite element analysis for the key parts of track system,and has them lightweight designed,by using tools of Hypermesh and Ansys.It will reduce the manufacturing cost of the vehicle and improve the service life of the vehicle.This paper lists the existing articulated track models at home and abroad,as well as the current theoretical research status based on this kind of vehicle.After that,the structural characteristics of the articulated tracked track system and the interaction between the main components are introduced in detail.The study establishes a virtual prototype model of the articulated track vehicle in LMS Virtual.Lab,and simulates the model under conditions of the whole vehicle climbing slopes,passing ditches,and throwing over high walls,based on the kinematics and dynamics analysis.As a result,the traversability of the vehicle under different terrain conditions are evaluted and some dynamic load parameters of the key components of the track system are accessible.The research uses Hypermesh and ANSYS softwares to make finite element analysis on each component of the track system,and obtains the stress and strain distribution of each key part under various working conditions.From the results the key components of the track system can meet the strength requirement.Although there are also some areas with large local stress located at the weld,which is mainly caused by stress concentration,and can be solved by means of improving the welding process and adding reinforcing plates.On the whole,all the key parts of the track system have stress redundancy,and the over-used materials have the manufacturing cost increased.Finally,from the perspective of structural optimization,ANSYS's own optimization algorithm is used to optimize the thickness of each key component of the track system,the thickness is used as the design variable,and the maximum Vonmises stress is used as the state variable,and the total mass as the objective function.The optimization value is basing on the range of design variables required by the manufacturer,and then the optimal value is calculated by the iteration of the zero-order and first-order optimization.From the final optimization results,the weight of each key component after optimization is reduced dramatically,indicating that this optimization scheme is feasible and meets the enterprise weight reduction requirements,with achieving the vehicle's lightweight target.