Abstract
The paper focuses on the acceleration process of the tracked vehicles which incorporate a Diesel engine, torque converter, planetary gear box and a tracked running gear.
The estimation of the vehicle acceleration performances plays an important role in the assessment of the vehicle mobility. The estimation becomes difficult in the case of the tracked vehicles due to the complexity of their power pack (consisting mainly of the engine and the hydrodynamic transmission), as well as because the tracked running gear.
The paper presents a simplified algorithm focused on the estimation of the acceleration performances. The engine output is modelled using a polynomial function which allows the development of an algorithm for the analytical calculation of the torque converter output. As result, the tractive performances are derived, including the acceleration characteristics of the vehicle.
The accuracy of the proposed algorithm is compared with the experimental data resulted from the testing of a 50 tonnes tracked vehicle running up to 60 km/hour.
Keywords: mobility, acceleration, tracked vehicle, hydrodynamic transmission