Contact dynamics analysis of the single-pin meshing pair of a tracked vehicle

Single-pin meshing pairs are widely used in light-tracked vehicles. The purpose of this paper is to establish a nonlinear contact algorithm between the sprocket and track for multibody dynamics simulation. Based on the actual configuration, the tooth groove profile is discretized into three cambered surfaces, and the track pin is modeled as a cylinder with a protrusion. A body-fixed frame is introduced for each contact surface to facilitate the geometric contact criteria and contact force evaluation. Then the features of equal-pitch, sub-pitch and extra-pitch meshing are described with multibody dynamics analysis. It indicates that track pitch and sprocket pitch are the critical process parameters. A field test was performed to excavate the cause of chassis vibration. Compared with simulation results, the proposed contact model can effectively simulate the high-frequency excitation applied on a tracked vehicle. To improve its service life, a suggestion for the sprocket and track design is developed to fully use the sub-pitch meshing.