Military tracked vehicles are deployed in severe environmental and loading conditions during Military operations. The space availability and high heat rejection sources makes the cooling system design a challenging task by offering little margin in design parameters. This paper presents prime aspects of the design methodology i.e. packaging of cooling system aggregates in available space, optimizing air flow, numerical simulation and also the evaluation of cooling system performance on a test bench in simulated vehicle conditions and during field trials. During preliminary design stage virtual prototyping approach was adopted which helped to make critical decisions earlier in the development stage before physical prototyping. Further, sensitivity study of size of heat exchangers, layout of fan-heat exchangers and its effect on overall system resistance was studied. Data from field trials were gathered and analysed. We established a good correlation of thermal data from field trials in collaboration with CVRDE and data evaluated based on numerical simulations. This approach and close correlation between the theoretical and field data will be helpful in achieving all future developments of Tracked Vehicle Powerpacks, first time right.

Keywords: Tracked vehicle, Military Vehicle, Cooling System, Radiator, Charged Air Cooler, Hydraulic Oil Cooler, Fan, Powerpack, Numerical Analysis, CFD, Simulation, Digital Prototype.