Potential for improvement of comfort parameters in off-road vehicles of Serbian armed forces

Abstract

The paper presents the comparative results of comfort parameter testing inside the cabin of Land Rover Defender off-road vehicles. The measurements were carried out on two vehicle models -110 GS Hard Top and 110 GS Soft Top Heavy Duty. Tests on comfort parameters were performed only on the military off-road vehicles, or to be more precise on the military off-road vehicles used by the Serbian Armed Forces. The results of the performed tests offer some suggestions for the improvement of comfort of military off-road vehicles used by the Serbian Armed Forces. The comfort elements have been compared from the aspect of accommodation of the crew, noise, vibrations and heating efficiency. A part of the experiment was performed by intensive driving of these off-road vehicles in real world conditions, on three pre-selected types of terrain surface, in order to ensure the repeatability of the testing results: heath, gravel and asphalt base (a portion of the Belgrade-Zagreb highway at the territory near Sid was used due to its less frequent traffic and surface quality). Noise and vibration measurements were carried out at the driver's seat, co-driver's seat and other passenger seats under strictly defined vehicle speeds. Testing of the heating efficiency inside the cabin was carried out under laboratory conditions in the cold chamber of the artillery range at Nikinci at a constant ambient temperature of -16 degrees C.