Development and Validation of Chassis Mounted Platform Design for Heavy Vehicles

Hand calculations, finite element (FE) analysis and experimental validation of chassis mounted platform design for defence and commercial off-road vehicles have been attempted in this work. The work was commenced with the thorough study of platform configuration, loading pattern, platform mount location and configuration on the vehicle chassis and relevant vehicle characteristics. Calculation of section modulus, shear force and bending moment of various structural members under specified loading has been carried out before proceeding with the FE modeling and analysis of platform. FE model of the chassis mounted platform has been made using shell elements and the boundary conditions have been imposed based on the loading pattern with an assumption of rigid vehicle chassis. Static and gradient analyses of the platform have been carried out for full scale and reduced scale prototype FE models. Experimental strain measurement at critical locations under different static and gradient loads has been carried out for design validation of chassis mounted platform using the scaled prototype. Close correlation has been found between the experimental stress values and FE stress analysis results for static and gradient load conditions. From the entire load tests conducted, it is observed that the strain values in rear portion are less as compared with those in front and mid portions of the platform in-spite of the rear overhang provision.