A review of mobility metrics for next generation vehicle mobility models

In the United States, the NATO Reference Mobility Model (NRMM) has been used for evaluating military ground vehicle mobility and the Vehicle Cone Index (VCI) has been selected as a mobility metric. VCI represents the minimum soil strength required for a vehicle to consistently make a specific number of passes, usually one or fifty passes. In the United Kingdom, the Mean Maximum Pressure (MMP) has been adopted as a metric for assessing military vehicle cross-country mobility. MMP is the mean value of the maxima occurring under all the wheel stations of a vehicle. Both VCI and MMP are empirically based. This paper presents a review of the basis upon which VCI and MMP were developed, as well as their applications to evaluating vehicle mobility in practice. With the progress in terramechanics and in modelling and simulation techniques in recent years, there is a growing desire to develop physics-based mobility metrics for next generation vehicle mobility models. Based on the review, criteria for selecting physics-based mobility metrics are proposed. Following these criteria, metrics for characterizing military vehicle traction limits and traversability on a given operating area are recommended.     

Sinkage tests for mobility study, modelling and experimental validation

The sinkage of the bearing tracks or wheels of a vehicle in soil induces a resistance to travel motion. Usually it is determined with methods based on the modelling of soil pressure-sinkage curves. This article presents a new method for modelling soil penetration tests as a result of experimental study of three standard soils. These soils have been chosen to represent the mechanical properties of a range of soils: a sand for frictional soils, a silt for cohesive soils and a silty sand for cohesive frictional soils. The models take into account the mechanical behaviour of soils where a small vertical sinkage can be assumed analogous to elastic behaviour, while for large sinkage, the analogy is with plastic behaviour. A New Model of Mobility (N2M) is proposed. A new equation relating the pressure p and the sinkage z is governed by four parameters which are constant for a specific soil in a given physical state. These parameters can be calculated with two sinkage tests made with two different plate diameters and are particularly stable: a small change of one of them involves a small change of the modelling. They are independent of the size of the sinkage plate and hence could pave the way for the extrapolation to the scale of full size vehicles. For the tested soils, comparison of the model results with experimental tests is very promising.     

Next-generation NATO reference mobility model complex terramechanics – Part 2: Requirements and prototype

In part 2 of this paper, the Complex Terramechanics (CT) software tools requirements recommended by the NATO research task group RTG-248 are presented along with example simulations from a CT prototype software tool which attempts to satisfy the requirements.     

Fast dynamic modeling for off-road track vehicles

The paper presents a simple, fast, and reliable dynamic model for an off-road track vehicle operating on terrain with obstacles. The method has been proven previously for wheeled-vehicle formulation. The model is based on a discrete body dynamics (DBD) method, which leads to simplistic linear decoupled motion equations. In this method, joints and bodies with relatively small mass are replaced with stiff springs and dampers, eliminating the system’s constraints and reducing the number of system bodies; this is important for accelerating the simulation runtime of the track vehicle model. The track in this approach is based on modeling each link as a point-mass. Two consecutive links are connected by stiff springs and dampers. This approach reduces the calculation time and increases system stability. The track–soil interaction was modeled using Bekker’s and Janosi’s formulation (Bekker, 1956; Hanamoto and Janosi, 1961). Specific soil properties were obtained for each link–soil interaction from soil classification and GIS. The link–ground contact was determined from topographic surface and adjustment of the force and direction acting on the track. The results of the simulation using the DBD method were compared with Siemens' VL commercial multibody dynamics program and with experiments reported in the literature. Results using the proposed method were found to be similar to the commercial program based on published experiments. The solution runtimes obtained for unpaved soil were two orders faster with the DBD method compared with the Siemens' VL program. The model was written as an independent software infrastructure, enabling easy integration with any other software component, such as a control system. The algorithm is in a suitable form for parallel processing calculation to speed up the runtime simulation close to real-time.     

Soft soil track interaction modeling in single rigid body tracked vehicle models

Single rigid body models are often used for fast simulation of tracked vehicle dynamics on soft soils. Modeling of soil-track interaction forces is the key modeling aspect here. Accuracy of the soil-track interaction model depends on calculation of soil deformation in track contact patch and modeling of soil resistive response to this deformation. An algorithmic method to calculate soft soil deformation at points in track contact patch, during spatial motion simulation using single body models of tracked vehicles, is discussed here. Improved calculations of shear displacement distribution in the track contact patch compared to existing methods, and realistically modeling plastically deformable nature of soil in the sinkage direction in single body modeling of tracked vehicle, are the novel contributions of this paper. Results of spatial motion simulation from a single body model using the proposed method and from a higher degree of freedom multibody model are compared for motion over flat and uneven terrains. Single body modeling of tracked vehicle using the proposed method affords quicker results with sufficient accuracy when compared to those obtained from the multibody model.     

Study of the influence of vehicle parameters on tractive performance in deep snow

This paper describes an experimental study of tractive performance in deep snow, carried out with a new special skid steered tracked vehicle, developed by Bodin [1]. The vehicle design parameters studied include the influence of the ground clearance of the vehicle belly and the longitudinal location of the centre of gravity on tractive performance in deep snow, as well as the effect of initial track tension. The most important results from the test show that an increase in the ground clearance has a positive effect on the drawbar pull, originating from a greater increase in the thrust than in the track motion resistance and a slight decrease in the belly drag. Tests of the longitudinal location of the centre of gravity show that a location ahead of the midpoint of the track contact length is to be preferred. The drawbar pull increases with the centre of gravity moving forward. This is due to a reduced track motion resistance, a slight decrease in the belly drag and an almost constant vehicle thrust. The reason for the decreased track motion resistance and belly drag with the centre of gravity located ahead of the midpoint of the track contact length is a decreased vehicle trim angle.     

Overview of cold regions mobility modeling at CRREL

Over the last several decades, the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) has extensively tested and analyzed issues related to vehicle performance in winter. Using this knowledge and the experimental database, models were developed to capture the important elements for cold regions mobility performance. These models span a range of resolutions and fidelities and include three-dimensional finite element models of tire–terrain interaction, vehicle dynamics models of vehicles on winter surfaces, semi-empirical cold regions algorithms for winter performance within the NATO reference mobility model (NRMM), all-season vehicle performance in force-on-force war-gaming simulations, and vehicle–surface interaction for real-time vehicle simulators. Each of these types of models is presented along with examples of their application.     

Tyre flexibility and mobility on soft soils

Five model tyres were tested in the soil bin to investigate the effects of wheel flexibility on the tyre-soil performances. Two different soil types were used together with various inflation pressures which governed the tyre flexibility. The results confirm that tyre flexibility contributes significantly to the development of all the energy components [equation (1)] in the tyre-soil system. As can be seen from the contrasting performances shown, increasing the inflation pressure may allow for a favourable increase in the drawbar pull in one soil (frictional soil) so long as the input energy available can be increased, whilst the reverse may be true in the case of the other (clay) soil. The finite element model used satisfactorily confirms the measered values obtained and is seen to be able to account for tyre flexibility as shown in Figs. 11–14.     

Mobility analysis of off-road vehicles: Benefits for development, procurement and operation

Nowadays the requirements on off-road vehicles are rising steadily. The ideal vehicle has to provide excellent off-road capability with low fuel consumption, offer a high customizability for each specific mission and, last but not least, it has to be easy to operate. To meet these demands, on the development side a lot of parameter studies have to be carried out. The customer has to compare offers from a multiplicity of suppliers to decide which vehicle fulfills the designated mission task best. And finally, the operator needs the best training on the vehicle to cope with all possible situations in off-road mobility. In response to these needs, the presented simulation program WinMaku was developed to offer a tool to facilitate development, procurement and operator training. Exemplary simulation results show, on the one hand, the influence of specific design parameters, e.g. tire size, engine power, torque characteristics, gear shifting, and engine working conditions, and on the other hand the (beneficial or adverse) effects of operational parameters like driving with maximum/partial engine load, gear selection, engine speed, tire inflation pressure or track tension, on mobility performance. Furthermore results of vehicle comparison analysis are presented. These types of analysis show comparisons of mobility performance of different vehicle types or vehicle concepts (e.g. wheel vs. track) in fulfilling a certain mission profile, characterized by passing a sequence of different soils with various inclines. Endowed with such capability, the presented simulation tool serves as a training tool for operators, provides a cost effective method to assess possible development steps, allows customers to run a pre-selection process prior to expensive and time-consuming field tests, and finally supports mission planning by providing data like expected fuel consumption or time needed to pass a certain mission profile.     

An efficient method for increasing the accuracy of mobility maps for ground vehicles

This paper presents an efficient method for increasing the accuracy of one key step regarding the process of determining a mobility map. That is, the interpolation of the original Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to a finer resolution before running multi-body-dynamics simulations. Specifically, this paper explores the use of fractal dimension and elevation range metrics for increasing the accuracy and reducing the computation time associated with the spatial interpolation ordinary kriging method. The first goal is to ensure the stationary variogram requirement. The second goal is to reduce kriging error or variance in the new predicted values. A novel segmentation-based approach has been proposed to divide the regions of interest into segments where stationarity is ensured. Empirical investigation based on real DEMs indicates the generality of the segmentation approach when natural and man-made terrains are considered. The proposed method leads to a more efficient computation burden and to more accurate results than the traditional approach.     

Measurement of compacted soil density in a compaction of thick finishing layer

The compaction of a soil is one of the important construction operations that influences the durability of soil structure. Therefore, the measurement of soil density, used to judge the degree of compaction, has to be performed exactly. Since a compaction of a thick finishing layer could be executed with the enlargement of compaction machinery and the improvement of productivity, new equipment which can measure the soil density in a deep stratum has to be developed. In this paper, we propose a method of accurately estimating compacted soil density based on the three dimensional stresses measured in the ground during compaction by a stress state transducer (SST). A tracked vehicle mounted with a vertical oscillator was used to compact a decomposed granite soil of 45 cm depth. A model experiment was executed at a frequency that was varied from 16 to 25 Hz, setting the load ratio of maximum oscillating force to the vehicle weight (4.9 kN) to be 1.2, 1.6 and 2.0. The three dimensional stresses in the ground were measured by use of the SST. Comparing the dry density converted from cone penetrometer test results and the dry density estimated from Baily’s formula, the compacted soil density at the lowest soil stratum could be estimated by measuring earth pressure using SST.     

On the impact of cargo weight, vehicle parameters, and terrain characteristics on the prediction of traction for off-road vehicles

A realistic prediction of the traction capacity of vehicles operating in off-road conditions must account for stochastic variations in the system itself, as well as in the operational environment. Moreover, for mobility studies of wheeled vehicles on deformable soil, the selection of the tire model used in the simulation influences the degree of confidence in the output. Since the same vehicle may carry various loads at different times, it is also of interest to analyze the impact of cargo weight on the vehicle’s traction.This study focuses on the development of an algorithm to calculate the tractive capacity of an off-road vehicle with stochastic vehicle parameters (such as suspension stiffness, suspension damping coefficient, tire stiffness, and tire inflation pressure), operating on soft soil with an uncertain level of moisture, and on a terrain topology that induces rapidly changing external excitations on the vehicle. The analysis of the vehicle–soil dynamics is performed for light cargo and heavy cargo scenarios. The algorithm relies on the comparison of the ground pressure and the calculated critical pressure to decide if the tire can be approximated as a rigid wheel or if it should be modeled as a flexible wheel. It also involves using previously-developed vehicle and stochastic terrain models, and computing the vehicle sinkage, resistance force, tractive force, drawbar pull, and tractive torque.The vehicle model used as a case study has seven degrees of freedom. Each of the four suspension systems is comprised of a nonlinear spring and a viscous (linear or magneto-rheological) damper. An off-road terrain profile is simulated as a 2-D random process using a polynomial chaos approach [Sandu C, Sandu A, Li L. Stochastic modeling of terrain profiles and soil parameters. SAE 2005 transactions. J Commer Vehicles 2005-01-3559]. The soil modeling is concerned with the efficient treatment of the impact of the moisture content on relationships critical in defining the mobility of an off-road vehicle (such as the pressure–sinkage [Sandu C et al., 2005-01-3559] and the shear stress–shear displacement relations). The uncertainties in vehicle parameters and in the terrain profile are propagated through the vehicle model, and the uncertainty in the output of the vehicle model is analyzed [Sandu A, Sandu C, Ahmadian M. Modeling multibody dynamic systems with uncertainties. Part I: theoretical and computational aspects, Multibody system dynamics. Publisher: Springer Netherlands; June 29, 2006. p. 1–23 (23), ISSN: 1384-5640 (Paper) 1573-272X (Online). doi:10.1007/s11044-006-9007-5; Sandu C, Sandu A, Ahmadian M. Modeling multibody dynamic systems with uncertainties. Part II: numerical applications. Multibody system dynamics, vol. 15, No. 3. Publisher: Springer Netherlands; 2006. p. 241–62 (22). ISSN: 1384-5640 (Paper) 1573-272X (Online). doi:10.1007/s11044-006-9008-4]. Such simulations can provide the basis for the study of ride performance, handling, and mobility of the vehicle in rough off-road conditions.     

Measuring the mobility parameters of forwarders using GPS and CAN bus techniques

Use of a datalogger connected to the CAN bus of an 8-wheeled forwarder’s hydrostatic transmission permits measurement of the gross power on the driveline and the rotational velocity of the drive axle. The ground velocity and trajectory of the forwarder is monitored by the GPS technique. These data allow the total resistance force and wheel slip to be determined under different terrain conditions. In this paper the total resistance force is segregated into rolling, slope and winding resistances. The measuring system was tested in practice on an even tarmac surface and a gently sloping hard earth road, the number of input variables in the first tests having been reduced. It was found that the measuring accuracy permitted detection of about a half percent variation in slope inclination in the test lane. Tests on a figure of 8 track showed that the winding resistance can also be detected. It was concluded that the measuring technique is accurate enough for terramechanical research and practicable under real forestry conditions.     

Development and experimental evaluation of translational semi-active dampers on a high mobility off-road vehicle

This paper describes the further development and experimental evaluation of two-state semi-active translational dampers on a 6×6 high mobility off-road vehicle. As only ride comfort was enhanced during previous work, the low-speed damping characteristics on the semi-active damper was increased in order to improve vehicle handling. The existing passive dampers, as normally fitted to the test vehicle, were modified to the semi-active configuration by adding a bypass assembly and a controllable valve. Experimental work included driving over various repeatable surfaces at different speeds and executing severe lane change manoeuvres. Results indicated that both handling and ride comfort were improved when selecting the semi-active configuration.     

Mechanical properties in relation to vehicle mobility of Sepang peat terrain in Malaysia

An analytical framework for determining the mechanical properties of peat and predicting the tractive performance of tracked vehicle is presented. It takes into account the load-sinkage and shearing characteristics of peat as well as all major design parameters of tracked vehicle. An experimental study on the mechanical properties of peat soil was conducted at Sepang area, Selangor, Malaysia. The stiffness values of surface mat and underlying weak peat deposit from load-sinkage test were determined by specially made bearing capacity apparatus. The mean values of surface mat stiffness before and after drainage were found to be 31 and 45.62 kN/m³, respectively and the mean values of underlying peat stiffness before and after drainage were found to be 252 and 380.20 kN/m³, respectively. The mean value of the internal frictional angle, cohesiveness and shear deformation modulus of the peat soil sample were determined using a direct shear box apparatus in the laboratory. The mean values of internal friction angle, cohesiveness and shear deformation modulus before and after drainage were found to be 22.80° and 24.31°, 2.63 and 2.89 kN/m², and 1.21 and 1.37 cm, respectively.     

Quantifying vegetation biomass impacts on vehicle mobility

Soil impacts on vehicle mobility are well known; however, most data are for bare soil or the type and amount of vegetation is not documented. This study summarizes results from experiments to quantify the effect of above ground and below ground vegetation biomass on vehicle performance. Soil–vegetation combinations of three soils and three grasses were used. The vegetation was tested at various growth stages and was also subjected to stressors such as trafficking, burning, and cutting. Vegetation measurements included above ground (leaves and shoots) and below ground (root) biomass weights, lengths, diameters and surface area parameters. The soils were characterized for size distribution, moisture, density and terrain strength for each test condition. Vehicle traction and motion resistance were measured for each soil–grass combination using the CRREL Instrumented Vehicle. Results showed an increase in net traction biomass in sandy soils. For clay soils above ground biomass generally increased resistance while increased root diameter clearly decreased resistance. This study represents the first measurements quantifying the impacts of specific biomass parameters on vehicle mobility. The results will serve to guide new experimental methods, improve datasets, and develop physics-based models for years to come.     

Advanced mobility in difficult terrain

The development and success of the Swedish Combat Vehicle CV90 has demonstrated the abilities of the author in the field of terramechanics related to tracked military vehicles. The honour of the Bekker–Reece–Radforth Award 2002 has been granted in recognition of these achievements made during the author's employment at Hägglunds Vehicle AB since 1975. Hägglunds Vehicle AB has been a producer of military vehicles since the late 1950s, although the first years concentrated on production only. From the early 1960s, Hägglunds developed a number of its own tracked vehicles, all of which were influenced by the mobility demands dictated by their intended use in severe terrain conditions, such as those found in Northern Scandinavia. This paper presents a brief history of the advancement of tracked vehicle technology at Hägglunds Vehicle AB. The concepts discussed include: ground pressure, the number of road-wheels, articulated steering, track tension, track attack angle, sinkage, belly effects, and the use of terramechanic simulation. The success of the CV90 demonstrates that the combination of practical experience, terrain knowledge, and terramechanic simulations can effect substantial improvements in vehicle mobility. Evaluation of the CV90 versus other modern combat vehicles of the same class has shown that the CV90 possesses considerably higher mobility and speed under severe terrain conditions. These two attributes provide CV90 with the ability to access terrain that similar vehicles cannot, thus giving the military user greater mobility options.     

Endurance Tests on a Colloidal Damper Destined to Vehicle Suspension

Endurance tests on a colloidal damper destined to vehicle suspension are performed. Such absorber represents an ecological application of nano-damping; it employs the hysteresis which occurs when water is forced to penetrate and then naturally exudes from a nanoporous silica gel matrix, modified to become liquid-repellent. Damping performances decrease at the increasing of the number of working cycles, partially since the silica gel grains that undergo gradual fatigue fracture are able to escape at the packing used to seal the test chamber, and partially due to the fatigue fracture alone, which is accompanied by an enhancement of the hydrophilic silanol groups on the silica gel surface and a pore size redistribution. In order to augment damper’s life, silica gel is introduced inside of a tank that is separated by a filter from the main cylinder, in which only water is supplied. One discusses the influence of filtration on the colloidal damper performances and the variation of damper’s life versus the ratio of filter pore’s diameter to the mean size of the silica gel particles.     

A high-fidelity approach for vehicle mobility simulation: Nonlinear finite element tires operating on granular material

Assessing the mobility of off-road vehicles is a complex task that most often falls back on semi-empirical approaches to quantifying the vehicle–terrain interaction. Herein, we concentrate on physics-based methodologies for wheeled vehicle mobility that factor in both tire flexibility and terrain deformation within a fully three-dimensional multibody system approach. We represent the tire based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF), a nonlinear finite element approach that captures multi-layered, orthotropic shell elements constrained to the wheel rim. The soil is modeled as a collection of discrete elements that interact through contact, friction, and cohesive forces. The resulting vehicle/tire/terrain interaction problem has several millions of degrees of freedom and is solved in an explicit co-simulation framework, built upon and now available in the open-source multi-physics package Chrono. The co-simulation infrastructure is developed using a Message Passing Interface (MPI) layer for inter-system communication and synchronization, with additional parallelism leveraged through a shared-memory paradigm. The formulation and software framework presented in this investigation are proposed for the analysis of the dynamics of off-road wheeled vehicle mobility. Its application is demonstrated by numerical sensitivity studies on available drawbar pull, terrain resistance, and sinkage with respect to parameters such as tire inflation pressure and soil cohesion. The influence of a rigid tire assumption on mobility is also discussed.