Enhancement of Mobility of a Tracked Armoured Fighting Vehicle by Introducing an Automatic Track Tensioner

A prototype automatic track tensioner was developed and test evaluated. The automatic track tensioner mitigates the chances of track shedding under dynamic condition in a tracked armoured fighting vehicle and also avoids exposure of crew in battle field. This research paper focuses on virtual performance evaluation of hydro-pneumatic type automatic track tensioner, by fitting its 3D model on a Multi-Body Dynamics model of the vehicle and subjecting for virtual simulation for various road profiles and vehicle speeds. The Multi-Body Dynamics analysis affirms that the automatic track tensioner plays a vital role in enhancing the off-road mobility of armoured fighting vehicle by providing real-time track tension during running of the vehicle in different surface undulations. This paper also covers a lab level experimental evaluation carried out on the actual hardware of the prototype, by subjecting it under an endurance test with various input loads and frequencies, in which the performance of the automatic track tensioner was excellent in the entire duration of the test.