A discrete terrain representation method using the triangular patch is used to represent the ground. The plane equation of interacting ground profiles for a triangular patch element which has three nodes and a unit normal vector is employed for the terrain model. The ground interacting patch element with a track link can be single or multiple, and therefore, there are one or several patch elements on each track link that can come into contact. The global position vectors that define the locations of contact points on the shoe body of track link are expressed in terms of the generalized coordinates of the track link and are used to predict whether or not the track shoe body is in contact with the constructed patch element. The ground profile can be created or can be imported from a file. To see how to create ground profile, refer to Create a Road Data Directly, Import a Road Data, and Create a Road Data using Make Road Data.
Figure 1 RoadData icon of the Road group in the Track(HM) tab
Note
The road data can be contact for a y-direction of system. So when the user uses road data, track model has to be modeled in XY plane or ZY plane. If the user want to model in other plane, the user has to use Track to Surface contact.
The road data has to exist to the same subsystem with Track Assembly System. So, if the user wants to perform analysis in Assembly mode, the road data has to exist in Ground.