Systematic trade-off strategies for balancing survivability and mobility in vehicle design

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Ground Sea OBJECTIVE: An automated systematic tradeoff tool for balancing several alternative considerations of survivability with mobility for advanced vehicle design DESCRIPTION: Program Managers, system integrators and senior leaders need to make informed technical decisions based on trade-offs between two critical vehicle attributes, namely, Survivability and Mobility. A rigorous data-based tool that can perform this tradeoff over a wide range of performance criteria has been sought after for a long time. PHASE I: During the Phase I effort the contractor shall develop the basic mathematical formulation which will enable set based design within an automated multidisciplinary design optimization process. The new mathematical formulation will be implemented into a code that can be used to demonstrate the feasibility and value of the new capability. A case study that involves simplified survivability and mobility simulations for a generic vehicle will be used for demonstration. PHASE II: During the Phase II effort new capabilities will be developed that will make the set based design approach in multidisciplinary design powerful and easy to use. The mathematical algorithm will be further expanded from Phase I and new capabilities will be developed for making the process easy to use. New developments will be pursued for reducing the large number of function evaluations required by the typical set based design approach. A more comprehensive vehicle case study that involves survivability and mobility simulations shall be used for demonstration. PHASE III: The new product will be integrated in to one of the vehicle demonstration programs of Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC). A tool developed with this methodology would be useful not only within the DoD but also in all defense OEMs and Tier suppliers involved in Mobility-Survivability tradeoffs in any manner. This tool can also be used in commercial auto industry where developers and engineers often have to balance conflicting demands of increased safety simultaneously with reduced Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH). REFERENCES: 1: TARDEC 30-Year Strategy, V.2.0, January 2016.2: S. Hannapel, N. Vlahopoulos, Implementation of set-based design in multidisciplinary design optimization, Struct Multidisc Optim., DOI 10.1007/s00158-013-1034-2.3: B. Kempinski, C. Murphy, Technical Challenges of the U.S. Armys Ground Combat Vehicle Program, Working Paper 2012-15, Congressional Budget Office Washington, D.C.4: Application of Lightweighting Technology to Military Vehicles, Vessels, and Aircraft, Committee on Benchmarking the Technology and Application of Lightweighting; National Research Council, ISBN 978-0-309-22166-5. KEYWORDS: Lightweight Structures, Mobility, Survivability, Set Based Design