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The U.S. Army initiated program to assess the performance potential of a semiactive advanced suspension system for its combat vehicles is addressed. This paper is a continuation of SAE paper 970386, “Semiactive Suspension: A Mobility Case Study”, Saxon, N.L. and Meldrum, W.R. Jr. This year's paper addresses actual field testing of the semiactive hydropneumatic suspension versus a standard torsion bar passive suspension on two similarly weighted Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The hardware discussed will include semiactive external in-arm hydropneumatic suspension, computer controller, and dynamic track tensioner. The relative mobility of the two systems, passive and semiactive, is evaluated through various field tests such as ride, shock, slalom, and traverse testing.

The U.S. Army has initiated a program to assess the performance potential of a semiactive advanced suspension system for its combat vehicles. The program utilizes the Bradley Fighting Vehicle as a test bed for a semiactive external in-arm hydropneumatic suspension. The system hardware includes the suspension and associated plumbing, computer controller, and dynamic track tensioner. This paper describes the comparable benefits of the semiactive suspension over the passive suspension through both laboratory testing and simulation results. Transmissibility analysis of the laboratory data document far less hull motion in the semiactive case. Simulated vehicle mobility again shows less vehicle motion and superior ride quality using the semiactive suspension.

The incorporation of semiactive suspension technology into military vehicles is shown to be a win-win proposition. Extensive test results are presented for five comparable pairs of passive and semiactive suspension equipped vehicle configurations. The cross-country ride and platform stability performance for these 19 metric ton tracked vehicles demonstrates the substantial gains achievable with a semiactive suspension. The test results are augmented with simulation results assessing the respective suspension system power losses and evaluating the performance potential achievable by equipping an M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle with a semiactive suspension system. It is further shown that such a semiactive suspension equipped Bradley will have cross country mobility equivalent to the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank.