| This research work presents and discusses computational methods that can be used for the nonlinear dynamic, vibration, stress, and deformation analysis of multibody track chains. In most of the literature published on tracked vehicle dynamics, the numerical models of the track chains are simplified; the track chains are modeled as elastic massless. These simplified models are not sufficient to accurately represent the track chain dynamics. The scope of this work is to contribute to the development of several accurate, efficient, and useful computational tools that can be used in the design of multibody track chains. The objectives of the thesis can be briefly defined as follows: to develop and examine an approximate computational method that reduces the number of independent coordinates used to describe the track chain motion; to investigate a detailed three-dimensional tracked vehicle model and demonstrate its use in several numerical simulations, to develop a numerical procedure for the three-dimensional dynamic stress analysis of track chain links; to present a finite element method for the dynamic analysis of closed chains that consist of interconnected flexible links and examine its performance in solving small and large deformation problems. |
