Failure Mechanism of the Fire Control Computer CPU Board inside the Tank under Transient Shock: Finite Element Simulations and Experimental Studies

Abstract

The electronic components inside a main battle tank (MBT) are the key components for the tank to exert its combat effectiveness. However, breakdown of the inner electronic components can easily occur inside the MBT due to the strong transient shock and large vibration during artillery fire. As a typical key electronic component inside an MBT, the fault mechanism and fault patterns of the CPU board of the fire control computer (FCC) are discussed through numerical simulation and experimental research. An explicit nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed to study the vibration features and fault mechanism under instantaneous shock load. By using finite element modal analysis, the first six nature frequencies of the CPU board are calculated. Meanwhile, curves of stress–frequency and strain–frequency of the CPU board under different harmonic loads are obtained, which are applied to further identify the peak response of the structure. Validation of the finite element model and simulation results are performed by comparing those obtained from the modal with experiments. Based on the dynamic simulation and experimental analysis, fault patterns of CPU board are discussed, and some optimization suggestions were proposed. The results shown in this work can provide a potential technical basis and reference for the optimization design of the electronic components that are commonly used in the modern weapon equipment and wartime support.