SBIR-STTR Award

The overall objective of this project is to develop, validate and verify an universal physics-based vehicle terrain interaction model. The model should be able to account for a variety of soil and vehicle loading (wheel and track) conditions. The purpose of the model is to predict soil and vehicle wheel and track deformations in order to determine the vehicle power and energy requirements. Models components that need to be considered include 1) vehicle wheel and track force loadings and deformations, 2) subsurface soil stress distribution, and 3) soil strength and deformation descriptors.

Keywords:
Model, Vehicle, Track, Wheel, Soil, Soil Deformation, Soil Strength, Power And Energy Analysis.

The development of advanced, realtime, operator-in-the-loop tire/track/soil models, which can predict power and energy requirements, is an essential requirement for determining operational profiles for vehicles, especially hybrids, during the design and d