Rollover Mitigation in Skid Steered Wheeled Military Vehicles with Articulated Suspension

Abstract

Articulated suspended skid steered wheeled platforms belong to a class of “High Mobility Vehicles” that suit military applications due to their extreme maneuverability. However, due to high CG these platforms are unstable at higher speeds and prone to rollover. This limitation has restricted their use to slow speed applications like UGVs/ rovers only. Limited research is available on rollover behavior of skid steered articulated suspension based vehicles, that too further limited to only indirect roll control schemes like wheel torque control etc. This research contributes to study of factors affecting rollover propensity of subject vehicles and devises scheme for rollover mitigation through direct control of suspension system. An 8x8 wheeled APC has been modeled in TRUCKSIM (vehicle dynamics software) to further carry out simulations to analyze how roll over propensity varies under influence of various factors. Test procedure of Double Lane Change (DLC) has been adopted for detailed investigation. Variables adjustable through suspension system have been analyzed to devise rollover control scheme. Most important factors i.e. CG height adjustment and lateral load transfer have been chosen to be controlled through individual wheel ride height adjustment. Rollover control scheme has been implemented in SIMULINK/MATLAB and co-simulations done with TRUCKSIM to analyze efficacy of scheme developed. Active suspension system model has been suggested with virtual model setup in MSC ADAMS (multi-body dynamics software). Simulation results achieved from a standard vehicle are compared with the one fitted with rollover controller which indicate significant improvement in rollover behavior. This research will assist designers in improving top speed of said platforms as well as improve handling and stability so as to make them compatible for high speed military applications like Armored Personnel Carrier (APC)/ Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV).