Designing a mechanism of lifting suspension in wheeled armoured vehicles

Swimming for armored amphibious vehicles is particularly important for both attack/defense sustainability and crew life during operation. The wheels of the amphibious vehicle due to the buoyancy force in the water form as an obstacle during the movement of the vehicle in the water according to the Archimedes Principle. This is especially the case for vehicle-carrying amphibious vehicles, vibration, trembling etc. There is a risk of immersing the vehicle and the vehicles it carries on it. Therefore, designs had been made in the past by removing the suspension arms and reducing the area forming the resistance, but different solutions have been sought as the problem cannot be solved. As a solution, the rack and pinion gear design mechanism used such in steering systems has been tested to withstand the high force values from the wheels and suspension elements. This mechanism design approach was used for the first time for such systems exposed to force of this magnitude. The analysis procedures solved by adhering to some pioneer gearing standards were solved by the ANSYS Workbench with non-linear calculations. It is proved that the mechanism works by applying Kinematic Analysis solutions with ADAMS program. In terms of the development of the design, 1/1 scale vehicle in FLUENT program, the system that lifts the wheels and the design of the wheels in which the design is not used by dissolving them together with the system in the water environment. It has been seen that analytical solutions and analysis solutions overlap with the proposed solution.