Ergonomic Level Improving of Armoured Fighting Vehicle Crew

N. V. Ramamurthy; B. K. Vinayagam; Roopchand J.

doi:10.14429/dsj.68.11321

N. V. Ramamurthy Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, Chennai - 600 054, India
B. K. Vinayagam SRM University, Kattankulathur- 603 203, India
Roopchand J. Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, Chennai - 600 054, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.68.11321

Keywords: Vibration responses, Vehicle-occupant system, Seat suspension system, Mathematical model, Optimisation algorithms, GA

Abstract

The armoured fighting vehicle (AFV)-occupant composite system is modelled as a lumped parameter system, in this paper, wherein the 4 degrees of freedom (dof) biodynamic occupant model is integrated with 10 dof in-plane AFV model including the crew seat, thus leading to the 14 dof vehicle-occupant composite model and the governing equations of motion are obtained. The composite model is subjected to idealised road input simulating the ground reaction forces. Natural frequencies and the frequency domain vibration responses of various masses of model are obtained. The natural frequency of chassis thus obtained is compared with the result established by an earlier research work, to validate the model. The study is focused on crew seat location. A 2 dof occupant-seat suspension model is formulated and validated through case study. The optimised values of seat suspension parameters for ride comfort are obtained using the said model, through two methods of Invariant points theory and genetic algorithm toolbox of Matlab 2014a software. Acceleration responses of body for the current and optimised parameter values obtained illustrate that comfort of crew is improved with optimised values through minimization in the acceleration responses.

Author Biographies

N. V. Ramamurthy, Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, Chennai - 600 054, India

Mr N.V. Ramamurthy received his BE(Mech. Engg.) from College of Engg., Guindy, Chennai, India, his MTech (Applied Mechanics) from IITM., Chennai, India and pursuing his PhD in Mech. Engg. at SRM University, Kattankulathur. Currently he is working as Tech. Officer ‘C’ at CVRDE, DRDO, Min. of Defence, Chennai, India. His current research interests include Vehicular vibration and Ergonomics.

In the current work, he made exhaustive literature survey, carried out mathematical modelling, simulation, model validation using earlier research findings, organising case study activity for model validation and manuscript preparation.

B. K. Vinayagam, SRM University, Kattankulathur- 603 203, India

Dr B.K. Vinayagam, received his MSc, (Engineering) in Machine tool design & manufacturing and his PhD in Flexible Manufacturing System. Currently he is working as Professor in the Department of Mechatronics Engg. at SRM Univ., Kattankulathur, India. His current research interests include Robotics & Vehicular vibrations.

In the present work, he provided valuable inputs to the author in the current topic of research and guided him in the modeling, simulation & analysis tasks to obtain the final outputs & organising the research findings.

Roopchand J., Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, Chennai - 600 054, India

Dr J. Roopchand, received his BE(Mechanical Engineering) from College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, India, his MTech (Machine Design) from IITM., Chennai, India and his Ph.D in Mechanical Engg. From Anna Univ., Chennai, India. Currently he is working as Addl. Director at CVRDE, DRDO, Min. of Defence, Chennai, India. His current research interests include Vehicular vibration and Terra mechanics.

In the present study, he finalised the methodology for case study including trial run of test vehicle in proving ground and provided complete guidance to the author in the data acquisition process during the case study.