Mobility Performance Prediction Model for Main Battle Tanks 2020-28-0355

Mobility performance prediction models for tracked vehicles are well established as seen from the literature reviews. However, these simulation models are more suitable for commercial vehicle applications than for military vehicles which operate under a wide range of terrain conditions and hostile environment. Most of the models do not take into account the effect of cooling fans, soft ground rolling resistance, and torque converter to predict mobility, and therefore using them for military vehicles would pose vital problems and not yield the expected results. This paper attempts to address these problems by using a MATLAB/SIMULINK model, which takes into account these factors for a 65 ton Main Battle Tank (MBT) as a case study. A simulation model for the above vehicle was developed incorporating effects of cooling fan and torque converter. The results were validated with published trial data for an in-service Main Battle Tank of the same weight class. The results revealed that the accuracy of the model is within

91-97% of the published data. The model was further fine-tuned to incorporate a variety of terrain conditions such as tarmac road, desert soil, clay soil, etc. to establish the maximum feasible speed for the Main Battle Tank understudy between two specific locations within a given operating theatre.