A method of torque control for independent wheel drive vehicles on rough terrain

Our previous research has revealed that, for vehicles with independently driven wheels, a torque distribution based on the ratio of the vertical load of each wheel to the total vehicle load is efficient for driving on flat ground. In this research, this method of torque distribution was extended to electric off-road vehicles driving on rough ground. In order to examine the driving efficiency of these vehicles, a numerical vehicle model was constructed in the pitch plane. Simulations using the numerical vehicle model on rough ground were conducted with a proposed torque distribution and control method. The numerical results from these simulations were compared with those of a conventional vehicle to evaluate the driving efficiency and trafficability on ground with various profiles. A comparison between the simulations demonstrated that the proposed method of torque distribution to the front and rear wheels based on the ratio of the vertical load is efficient for driving on rough ground.     

Experimental and DEM analyses on wheel-soil interaction

In this paper, the wheel-soil interaction for a future lunar exploration mission is investigated by physical model tests and numerical simulations. Firstly, a series of physical model tests was conducted using the TJ-1 lunar soil simulant with various driving conditions, wheel configurations and ground void ratios. Then the corresponding numerical simulations were performed in a terrestrial environment using the Distinct Element Method (DEM) with a new contact model for lunar soil, where the rolling resistance and van der Waals force were implemented. In addition, DEM simulations in an extraterrestrial (lunar) environment were performed. The results indicate that tractive efficiency does not depend on wheel rotational velocity, but decreases with increasing extra vertical load on the wheel and ground void ratio. Rover performance improves when wheels are equipped with lugs. The DEM simulations in terrestrial environment can qualitatively reproduce the soil deformation pattern as observed in the physical model tests. The variations of traction efficiency against the driving condition, wheel configuration and ground void ratio attained in the DEM simulations match the experimental observations qualitatively. Moreover, the wheel track is found to be less evident and the tractive efficiency is higher in the extraterrestrial environment compared to the performance on Earth.     

车轮多边形激励下高速列车制动界面摩擦学行为分析

高速列车车轮多边形磨耗是一种沿车轮周向的不均匀磨耗,是列车服役过程中常见的车轮失效现象,其产生的剧烈轮轨激励严重威胁车辆系统服役可靠性.制动系统作为保障高速列车服役安全的核心部件,其界面摩擦学行为直接受到轮轨激励的影响.为探究车轮多边形激励下的制动界面摩擦学行为,建立了刚柔耦合车辆动力学模型和制动系统热机耦合有限元模型,并分别通过线路试验和台架试验验证了模型的正确性.然后,提出一种考虑车轮多边形激励的制动界面摩擦学行为分析方法,能够真实地反映服役过程中制动界面摩擦学行为.基于此,研究了不同车辆运行速度下车轮多边形激励对制动系统动态接触、温度以及振动特性的影响规律.结果表明：车轮多边形磨耗导致系统接触面积、摩擦热、接触应力和振动等摩擦学行为更为复杂且剧烈.此外,系统接触面积标准差和振动加速度均方根值随速度的增加而增大.因此,车轮多边形磨耗对制动界面摩擦学行为具有不可忽略的影响.该研究成果可为制动系统界面摩擦学行为研究及结构优化设计提供有效方法与工程指导.     

ANALYTICAL STUDY ON GROUND VIBRATION INDUCED BY MOVING VEHICLE 1)

本文从汽车动力学出发,建立 1/4 汽车与半空间地基耦合振动的动力学模型,并采用弹性滚子接触模型来反映轮胎包容性. 模型中同时考虑轮-地之间的纵向和竖向作用力,构建系统动力控制方程,利用 Fourier 和 Laplace 积分变换进行求解,推导出地表振动位移的解析解. 在数值算例中,利用离散傅里叶逆变换和 Crump 法进行数值反演,得出地表振动位移的空间分布,由此讨论了轮胎着地长度和轮-地相互作用力的变化规律,并对地表振动位移的参数影响作出分析. 结果表明,地面不平度对轮-地之间作用力的影响最为显著,地面越不平顺则轮-地作用力和地表振动位移越大. 车速对轮-地作用力的大小影响有限,但对载荷激励频率影响较大,车速增大则激励频率增大,地表振动位移随之增大. 在较低车速时,轮胎包容性对轮-地作用力和地表振动产生一定影响,轮胎充气压力增大,轮-地作用力和地表振动位移增大,但随着车速升高,这种影响将逐渐消失.     

汽车行驶诱发地表振动的解析研究

本文从汽车动力学出发,建立 1/4 汽车与半空间地基耦合振动的动力学模型,并采用弹性滚子接触模型来反映轮胎包容性. 模型中同时考虑轮-地之间的纵向和竖向作用力,构建系统动力控制方程,利用 Fourier 和 Laplace 积分变换进行求解,推导出地表振动位移的解析解. 在数值算例中,利用离散傅里叶逆变换和 Crump 法进行数值反演,得出地表振动位移的空间分布,由此讨论了轮胎着地长度和轮-地相互作用力的变化规律,并对地表振动位移的参数影响作出分析. 结果表明,地面不平度对轮-地之间作用力的影响最为显著,地面越不平顺则轮-地作用力和地表振动位移越大. 车速对轮-地作用力的大小影响有限,但对载荷激励频率影响较大,车速增大则激励频率增大,地表振动位移随之增大. 在较低车速时,轮胎包容性对轮-地作用力和地表振动产生一定影响,轮胎充气压力增大,轮-地作用力和地表振动位移增大,但随着车速升高,这种影响将逐渐消失.      

Traction performance of a pushed/pulled drive wheel

A comprehensive method for prediction of off-road driven wheel performance is presented, assuming a parabolic wheel–soil contact surface. The traction performance of a driven wheel is predicted for both driving and braking modes. Simulations show significant non-symmetry of the traction performance of the driving and braking wheels. The braking force is significantly greater than the traction force reached in the driving mode. In order to apply the suggested model for prediction of the traction performance of a 4WD vehicle, the load transfer effect was considered. Simulated traction performances of front and rear driven wheels differ significantly, due to the load transfer. In the driving mode, the rear driven wheel develops a net traction force greater than that of the front wheel. On the other hand, in the braking mode the front driven wheel develops a braking force significantly greater than that of the rear driven wheel due to a pushed/pulled force affected by the load transfer. The suggested model was successfully verified by the data reported in literature and by full-scale field experiments with a special wheel-testing device. The developed approach may improve the prediction of off-road multi-drive vehicle traction performance.     

考虑胎路多点接触的电动汽车?路面耦合系统振动分析

轮毂电机驱动电动汽车的簧下质量大, 使得轮胎动载荷增加, 且电机激励进一步加剧车轮振动. 同时, 轮胎与路面单点接触的简化模型, 其动力学计算结果与实际存在差别. 鉴于此, 考虑电机的电磁激励、胎路多点接触和非线性地基, 建立了电动汽车?路面系统机电耦合动力学模型, 通过Galerkin法推导了非线性地基梁的垂向振动, 利用积化和公式推导了非线性地基梁中非线性项积分的精确表达式, 提出了路面截断阶数选取的简易方法, 并通过路面位移响应的收敛性进行了验证. 在此基础上, 研究了胎路多点接触、非线性地基、电机激励、车速、路面不平顺幅值等对路面及车辆响应的影响. 结果表明, 非线性地基及多点接触对车辆响应的影响中, 轮胎动载荷的影响最大, 车身加速度和悬架动挠度的影响较小, 且考虑电机激励时, 二者对车辆响应的影响显著增大. 从对路面响应的影响看, 电机激励的影响最大, 非线性地基的影响次之, 多点接触的影响较小. 所建模型及研究方法可为电动汽车的垂向动力学分析提供一种新思路.      

Interaction of subway LIM vehicle with ballasted track in polygonal wheel wear development

This paper develops a coupled dynamics model for a linear induction motor (LIM) vehicle and a subway track to investigate the influence of polygonal wheels of the vehicle on the dynamic behavior of the system. In the model, the vehicle is modeled as a multi-body system with 35 degrees of freedom. A Timoshenko beam is used to model the rails which are discretely supported by sleepers. The sleepers are modeled as rigid bodies with their vertical, lateral, and rolling motions being considered. In order to simulate the vehicle running along the track, a moving sleeper support model is introduced to simulate the excitation by the discrete sleeper supporters, in which the sleepers are assumed to move backward at a constant speed that is the same as the train speed. The Hertzian contact theory and the Shen- Hedrick-Elkins’ model are utilized to deal with the normal dynamic forces and the tangential forces between wheels and rails, respectively. In order to better characterize the linear metro system (LMS), Euler beam theory based on modal superposition method is used to model LIM and RP. The vertical electric magnetic force and the lateral restoring force between the LIM and RP are also taken into consideration. The former has gap-varying nonlinear characteristics, whilst the latter is considered as a constant restoring force of 1 kN. The numerical analysis considers the effect of the excitation due to polygonal wheels on the dynamic behavior of the system at different wear stages, in which the used data regarding the polygonal wear on the wheel tread are directly measured at the subway site.     

Effect of a scratch on curved rail on initiation and evolution of plastic deformation induced rail corrugation

A calculation model is put forward to analyze the effect of a scratch on the running surface of a curved rail on initiation and growth of plastic deformation induced rail corrugation when a wheelset is steadily and repeatedly curving. The numerical method considers a combination of Carter’s two-dimensional contact theory, a two-dimensional elastic–plastic finite element model and a vertical dynamics model of railway vehicle coupled with a curved track. A concept of feedback between the corrugation development and the vertical coupling dynamics of the wheelset and track is involved. The cyclic ratchetting effect of the rail material under repeated contact loadings is taken into account. The numerical results indicate that when a vehicle runs on rails with a scratch the contact vibration between the wheel and rail occurs at large amplitude, and rail corrugation due to plastic deformation initiates and develops. The corrugation has a tendency to move along the running direction and its evolution rate decays as wheelset passages increase. The passing frequencies of the plastic deformation induced corrugation depend on the natural frequencies of the track. The residual stresses stabilize after a limited number of wheelset passages. The residual strains increase at a reduced rate with increasing wheelset passages.     

A spatial motion analysis model of tracked vehicles with torsion bar type suspension

A spatial motion analysis model for high-mobility tracked vehicles was constructed for evaluation of ride performance, steerability, and stability on rough terrain. Ordinary high-mobility tracked vehicles are equipped with independent torsion bar type suspension system, which consists of road arms and road wheels. The road arm rotates about the axis of torsion bar, and rigidity of the torsion bar and cohesion of damper absorb sudden force change exerted by interaction with the ground. The motion of the road arms should be considered for the evaluation of off-road vehicle performance in numerical analysis model. In order to obtain equations of motion for the tracked vehicles, the equations of motion for the vehicle body and for the assembly of a road wheel and a road arm were constructed separately at first. Two sets of equations were reduced with the constraint equations, which the road arms are mechanically connected to the vehicle body. The equations of motion for the vehicle have been expressed with minimal set of variables of the same number as the degrees of freedom for the vehicle motion. We also included the effect of track tension in the equations without constructing equations of motion for the tracks. Numerical simulation based on the vehicle model and experiment of a scale model passing over a trapezoidal speed bump were performed in order to examine the numerical model. It was found that the numerical results reasonably predict the vehicle motion.     

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.     

Design of manned lunar rover wheels and improvement in soil mechanics formulas for elastic wheels in consideration of deformation

Most of the current lunar rover vehicle wheels are inconvenient for changing broken wheels and have poor shock absorbing in driving, so they cannot be used to carry people on the moon. To meet the demands for manned lunar transportation, a new wheel possessing a woven metal wire mesh tire and using hub-rim combination slide mechanism is designed in this article. The characteristics of the new wheel is analyzed by comparing with the same-size conventional rover wheels after demonstrating the validity of FEM simulation. The new wheel possesses lighter structure and superior shock absorbing. It also provides stronger traction because the deformation of the designed wheel increases the contact area between the tire and lunar terrain. In order to establish an on-line soil parameter estimation algorithm for low cohesion soil, the stress distribution along a driven deformable wheel on off-road terrain is simplified. The basic mechanics equations of the interaction between the wheel and the lunar soil can be used for analytical analysis. Simulation results show that the soil estimation algorithm can accurately and efficiently identify key soil parameters for loose sand.     

Track dynamic behavior at rail welds at high speed

As a vehicle passing through a track with different weld irregularities, the dynamic performance of track com- ponents is investigated in detail by using a coupled vehi- cle-track model. In the model, the vehicle is modeled as a multi-body system with 35 degrees of freedom, and a Timoshenko beam is used to model the rails which are dis- cretely supported by sleepers. In the track model, the sleepers are modeled as rigid bodies accounting for their vertical, lat- eral and rolling motions and assumed to move backward at a constant speed to simulate the vehicle running along the track at the same speed. In the study of the coupled vehicle and track dynamics, the Hertizian contact theory and the theory proposed by Shen-Hedrick-Elkins are, respectively, used to calculate normal and creep forces between the wheel and the rails. In the calculation of the normal forces, the coefficient of the normal contact stiffness is determined by transient contact condition of the wheel and rail surface. In the calcu- lation of the creepages, the lateral, roll-over motions of the rail and the fact that the relative velocity between the wheel and rail in their common normal direction is equal to zero are simultaneously taken into account. The motion equations of the vehicle and track are solved by means of an explicit integration method, in which the rail weld irregularities are modeled as local track vertical deviations described by some ideal cosine functions. The effects of the train speed, the axle load, the wavelength and depth of the irregularities, and the weld center position in a sleeper span on the wheel-rail impact loading are analyzed. The numerical results obtained are greatly useful in the tolerance design of welded rail pro- file irregularity caused by hand-grinding after rail welding and track maintenances.     

Improved sinkage algorithms for powered and unpowered wheeled vehicles operating on sand

Modeling and simulation of vehicles in sand is critical for characterizing off-road mobility in arid and coastal regions. This paper presents improved algorithms for calculating sinkage (z) of wheeled vehicles operating on loose dry sand. The algorithms are developed based on 2737 tests conducted on sand with 23 different wheel configurations. The test results were collected from Database Records for Off-road Vehicle Environments (DROVE), a recently developed database of tests conducted with wheeled vehicles operating in loose dry sand. The study considers tire diameters from 36 to 124 cm with wheel loads of 0.19–36.12 kN. The proposed algorithms present a simple form of sinkage relationships, which only require the ratio of the wheel ground contact pressure and soil strength represented by cone index. The proposed models are compared against existing closed form solutions defined in the Vehicle Terrain Interface (VTI) model. Comparisons suggest that incorporating the proposed models into the VTI model can provide comparable predictive accuracy with simpler algorithms. In addition to simplicity, it is believed that the relationship between cone index (representing soil shear strength) and the contact pressure (representing the applied pressure to tire-soil interface) can better capture the physics of the problem being evaluated.     

轨下支承失效对直线轨道动态响应的影响

建立了基于Timoshenko梁模型的车辆/轨道耦合动力学模型,分析轨下支承失效对直线轨道动态响应的影响. 钢轨被视为连续弹性离散点支承上的无限长Timoshenko梁,通过假设轨道系统刚度沿纵向分布发生突变来模拟轨下支承失效状态. 推导了考虑钢轨横向、垂向和扭转运动的轮轨滚动接触蠕滑率计算公式. 利用Hertz法向接触理论和沈氏蠕滑理论计算轮轨法向力及轮轨滚动接触蠕滑力. 采用移动轨下支承模型的车辆/轨道耦合系统激振模式,考虑轨枕离散支承对系统动力响应的影响. 通过新型显式积分法求解车辆/轨道耦合动力学系统运动方程,由数值分析计算得到不同轨下支承失效状态下直线轨道的动态响应. 结果表明,轨下支承失效对直线轨道变形及加速度有显著的影响,随着失效轨下支承个数的增加,轮轨相互作用力和轨道部件的位移、加速度将会急剧增大,将加速失效区段线路状况的恶化.      

Torque distribution influence on tractive efficiency and mobility of off-road wheeled vehicles

Off-road vehicle performance is strongly influenced by the tire-terrain interaction mechanism. Soft soil reduces traction and significantly modifies vehicle handling; therefore tire dynamics plays a strong role in off-road mobility evaluation and needs to be addressed with ad-hoc models. Starting from a semi-empirical tire model based on Bekker–Wong theory, this paper, analyzes the performance of a large four wheeled vehicle driving on deformable terrain. A 14 degree of freedom vehicle model is implemented in order to investigate the influence of torque distribution on tractive efficiency through the simulation of front, rear, and all wheel drive configuration. Results show that optimal performance, regardless vertical load distribution, is achieved when torque is biased toward the rear axle. This suggests that it is possible to improve tractive efficiency without sacrificing traction and mobility. Vehicle motion is simulated over dry sand, moist loam, flat terrain and inclined terrain.     

Parameterization and modelling of large off-road tyres for ride analyses: Part 2 – Parameterization and validation of tyre models

Every mathematical model used in a simulation is an idealization and simplification of reality. Vehicle dynamic simulations that go beyond the fundamental investigations require complex multi-body simulation models. The tyre–road interaction presents one of the biggest challenges in creating an accurate vehicle model. Many tyre models have been proposed and developed but proper validation studies are less accessible. These models were mostly developed and validated for passenger car tyres for application on relatively smooth roads. The improvement of ride comfort, safety and structural integrity of large off-road vehicles, over rough terrain, has become more significant in the development process of heavy vehicles. This paper investigates whether existing tyre models can be used to accurately describe the vertical behaviour of large off road tyres while driving over uneven terrain. [1] Presented an extensive set of experimentally determined parameterization and validation data for a large off-road tyre. Both laboratory and field test are performed for various loads, inflation pressures and terrain inputs. The parameterization process of four tyre models or contact models are discussed in detail. The parameterized models are then validated against test results on various hard but rough off-road terrain and the results are discussed.