Comparative Analysis of Methods of Power Distribution in Mechanical Transmissions and Evaluation of their Effectiveness

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The main indicators for mobility of a multipurpose wheeled vehicle (MWV) are the maximum and average technical velocity, and they are mainly determined by power-to-weight ratio and parameters of the suspension. As our analysis shows, with the increase of the power-to-weight ratio of the vehicle and its weight, the growth rate of the velocity is reduced, and after reaching a certain value, the velocity remains almost constant. This is due to the fact that for operating conditions of the multipurpose wheeled vehicle, movement on roads with different degrees of uneven distribution of the rolling resistance and tire traction, in both transverse and longitudinal directions, is typical.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">In this investigation we evaluate the effectiveness of the main methods of power distribution between the drive wheels of the multipurpose wheeled vehicles: disabling of drive axles, blocking of cross-axle and inter-axle differentials, a slowdown of slipping wheels.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">It was revealed that the transmission of a promising MWV has to be modernized in the following ways: 1) all-wheel drive with the rational value of the gear ratio of inter-axle differential (by a “rational gear ratio” here and further in this paper we mean the selection of the gear ratio by fitting a number of teeth of gears in inter-axle differential); 2) realization of the possibility of periodic shutdown of the drive axles when road conditions are good, or turning on the additional driving axles of the trailer when the road conditions require significant drive forces and torques; 3) providing of limited excess capacity of power unit by reducing the fuel supply or applying braking torque to the slipping wheels; 4) providing of rigid kinematic connection in the movement process with compensation of the kinematic mismatch by adjusting of air pressure in the tires.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">At present, the effectiveness of the proposed methods of power distribution has been investigated in different extent. Thus, there arises the problem of the complex evaluation of the effectiveness of methods of the power distribution between the drive wheels of the multi-purpose wheeled vehicle. This investigation is devoted to this problem.</div></div>