This paper presents a formulation and procedure for incorporating the multibody dynamics analysis capability of\ntracked vehicles in large-scale multibody system. The proposed self-contained modular approach could be interfaced to\nany existing multibody simulation code without need to alter the existing solver architecture. Each track is modeled as a\nsuper-component that can be treated separate from the main system. The super-component can be efficiently used in\nparallel processing environment to reduce the simulation time. In the super-component, each track-link is modeled as\nseparate body with full 6 degrees of freedom (DoF). To improve the solution stability and efficiency, the joints between\ntrack links are modeled as complaint connection. The spatial algebra operator is used to express the motion quantities\nand develop the link�s nonlinear kinematic and dynamic equations of motion. The super-component interacts with the\nmain system through contact forces between the track links and the driving sprocket, the support rollers and the idlers\nusing self-contained force modules. Also, the super-component models the interaction with the terrain through force\nmodule that is flexible to include different track-soil models, different terrain geometries, and different soil properties.\nThe interaction forces are expressed in the Cartesian system, applied to the link�s equation of motion and the\ncorresponding bodies in the main system. For sake of completeness, this paper presents dynamic equations of motion of\nthe links as well as the main system formulated using joint coordinates approach.
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