The purpose of the article is to present a point of view on determining the mass moment of inertia coefficient of a tracked vehicle. This coefficient is very useful to be able to estimate the performance of a tracked vehicle, including slips in the converter. Determining vehicle acceleration plays an important role in assessing vehicle mobility. Additionally, during the transition from the Hydroconverter to the hydro-clutch regime, these estimations become quite difficult due to the complexity of the propulsion aggregate (engine and hydrodynamic transmission) and rolling equipment. The algorithm for determining performance is focused on estimating acceleration performance. To validate the proposed model, tests were performed to determine the equivalent reduced moments of inertia at the drive wheel (gravitational method) and the main components (three-wire pendulum method). The dynamic performances determined during the starting process are necessary for the validation of the general model for simulating the longitudinal dynamics of the vehicle. Finally, the differential and algebraic equations of the virtual model approximate more accurately the actual process of the operation of the vehicle. The virtual model, through the data obtained from the simulation process, allows for the determination, indirectly, of the variation of the mass moment of inertia coefficient and its expression of approximation.

In many technical disciplines modem data analysis techniques has been successfully applied to understand the complexity of the system. The growing volume of theoretical knowledge about systems dynamic's offered researchers the opportunity to look for non-linear dynamics in data whose evolution linear models are unable to explain in a satisfactory manner. One approach in this respect is Recurrence Analysis - RA which is a graphical method designed to locate hidden recurring patterns, nonstationarity and structural changes. RA approach arose in natural sciences like physics and biology but quickly was adopted in economics and engineering. Meanwhile. The fast development of computer resources has provided powerful tools to perform this new and complex model. One free software which was used to perform our analysis is Visual Recurrence Analysis - VRA developed by Eugene Kononov. As is presented in this paper, the recurrence plot investigation for the analyzing of the internal combustion engine shows some of the RPA capabilities in this domain. We chose two specific engine parameters measured in two different tests to perform the RPA. These parameters are injection impulse width and engine angular speed and the tests are I11n and I51n. There were computed graphs for each of them. Graphs were analyzed and compared to obtain a conclusion. This work is an incipient research, being one of the first attempts of using recurrence plot for analyzing automotive dynamics. It opens a wide field of action for future research programs.

When discussing a torque converter driven, automotive transmission with respect to the vehicle's coasting mode, automotive engineers have to take into account the slip between the converter's propeller and turbine. If the turbine isn't locked to the propellers during coasting process, drag phenomena within the converter's fluid occur and they have to be properly assessed when computing the coasting process dynamics. The best way to make the needed evaluation is to have a separate torque converter and test it on a test bench, if the data provided by the manufacturer, in this respect, weren't available. But there are several issues that could baffle this action. Among them, one could find the lack of information from the manufacturer, missing (bankrupted) manufacturer, classified information, old (out of date) products and so on. An even more challenging situation consists in dealing with a military special vehicle. Actually, the vehicle that would be subjected to the following topic is a military tracked, heavy vehicle (MBT) with a planetary driveline, driven by its engine via a hydraulic torque converter. In the attempt to assess its' coasting dynamic performances, we faced the problem of the reverse rotation of the torque converter that strongly influences the general drag of the vehicle's motion. Hence, this paper tries to provide a method to determine the transmission overall drag considering the torque converter as being its main contributor. The method is based on the experimental research our team has performed in the last several months. Using high-quality software and adjacent mathematics while assuming a certain sort of flow type within the torque converter, we aimed at determining the parameter of interest of the flow. The method can be successfully used for all type of hydrodynamic components of the transmission under the condition of developing the necessary experimental research. As far as the test were concerned, they were the typical ones designed to determine - on experimental basis - the mass inertial moments of the transmission components using the "falling weight" principle.