Design and analysis of hybrid reconfigurable wheel for armoured vehicles

Abstract

The armoured vehicles are designed to carry heavy loads and move along a variety of terrains. The mobility is the major factor that makes the armoured vehicle move freely and rapidly over the terrains. Currently wheeled vehicles and tracked vehicles are used for off-road conditions. This paper a new hybrid reconfigurable wheel has been designed and analyzed that combines the benefits of the wheels and tracks. The reconfigurable wheel contains triangular configuration and circular configuration which automatically changed with respect to the speed of the vehicle. The triangular configuration will give more traction and stability while the circular configuration will provide easy mobility. In this paper, the various components required for the proposed mechanism are designed using CATIA V5 R6 and detailed stress and displacement analysis are carried out using ANSYS R18.2. The optimum design parameters are obtained and simulation of the reconfigurable wheel is performed. The reconfigurable wheel takes a triangular configuration when the speed is below 20kmph and transformed into circular configuration while the speed increases beyond 20kmph which assures stability and mobility of the armoured vehicle.

The static analysis of reconfigurable wheel-track transformation mechanism

“…For instance, the reconfigurable wheel-track (RWT) developed by Carnegie Mellon University [11] has been tested on the vehicle. Eli Raja et al designed a hybrid reconfigurable wheel for armed vehicles [12] , which can change the working mode according to the limit of speed. Chen Yu et al of Chinese North Vehicle Research Institute, proposed the walking unit of heavy-duty track wheel based on transformable retainer.…”

“…In literature [11], two testbeds are designed to verify the validity of power transmission and transformation mechanism between two modes, and relevant tests are carried out. Literature [12] mainly introduces the composition and working principle of the mechanism, and analyzes the stress and strain of each component without presenting the mechanical model. The technical scheme on heavy-duty track wheel is proposed in literature [7] and the performance parameters such as ground pressure, driving forces are calculated.…”