Design of steering system through optimization of TCD and steering effort

Lower turning circle diameter (TCD) is the mail requirement for all army vehicles, specifically for off-road hilly terrain. And steering effort is comparative to civilian vehicles required for army vehicles. Steering system is one of the key control and ride-handling parameter of vehicles. To meet these requirements, proper design of steering linkage and proper selection of wheel turning angles are crucial. Design of Steering linkage for a monologue V-hull and a Chassis base vehicle is quite different. In this work author has designed the steering system for Casper (Mine protected vehicle) within a stretched timeline and with lots of constraints related to design and processes. This work was done through optimization of TCD and Steering efforts and afterward evaluated the design through performance and other required testing by measuring TCD, Angles (LH and RH side) and Steering effort. Also, torture track testing was done to ensure effects of articulation on vehicle mainly the behavior of steering linkage. The objective of this work is to prove that a good design of steering system is possible with optimization of its performance parameters even in huge constraints.