Modeling and Dynamic Characteristics of Tracked Vehicle Equipped with Symmetrical Suspensions Based on Multi-Body Dynamics and Discrete Element Coupling Method

For improving the adaptability of a tracked vehicle equipped with a symmetrical suspension system on complex hilly terrain, based on the coupling method of multi-body dynamics (MBD) and discrete element method (DEM), an MBD-DEM coupling model was built and verified to explore its dynamic behaviors on soil. Firstly, according to the basic parameters of the tracked vehicle equipped with a symmetrical suspension system, a corresponding MBD model was built in Recurdyn V9R4 software. Based on the Euler–Lagrange method, the mathematical structure of the symmetrical suspension system was analyzed, and a corresponding mathematical simulation model was built in Matlab2016/Simulink to verify the MBD model. Secondly, based on the DEM theory and the parameter of the soil in a hilly area, a granular pavement model was built. Then, based on the coupling method of MBD and DEM, the corresponding MBD-DEM coupling model was built. Finally, using the MBD-DEM coupling model, the dynamic behaviors of the tracked vehicle equipped with a symmetrical suspension system under horizontal condition, the climbing condition and the obstacle crossing condition were obtained and discussed. The study results show that the proposed MBD-DEM coupling model could be used effectively to analyze the dynamic characteristics of the tracked vehicle. In addition, according to the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the proposed tracked vehicle, the tracked vehicle equipped with a symmetrical suspension presents good adaptabilities under various working conditions.