2008 DAC Plenary Lecture

David Gorsich, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Modeling and Simulation,
Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), U.S. Army

Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)/Reliability Centered Maintenance (RBM)
of Ground Vehicles

Abstract

The integration of new technologies into existing vehicle systems always posses challenges, especially in the areas of reliability and maintenance. Examples of these technologies are integrated armor, new electronics equipment, larger engines, or on-board power generation systems. Adding armor increases the weight on the vehicle suspension substantially. On-board power generation and electronics equipment require larger amounts of power and cooling. Larger engines require space and also additional cooling. Typically a systems engineering process is employed to include analytical methods and design optimization to determine the potential burdens and benefits of the new technology. These analytic methods are most useful when they have been validated with field tests. With the advent of integrated data buses and sensors on most ground vehicle platforms, there are new opportunities and blend current analytic approaches with a rich set of field data to validate models and determine a system's configuration, operational environment, and usage. This talk will discuss the system engineering approach currently being used by the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), and how new initiatives in CBM and RCM are providing new opportunities to improve the analytical process used to evaluate engineering changes to vehicles.

Bio: David Gorsich received his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Applied Mathematics in 2000 and is the Associate Director for Modeling & Simulation at the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC). His prior assignment was as the Director of Strategic Plans and Programs at TARDEC with oversight over all of TARDEC's technical programs. He has published over 150 journal and conference papers in the areas of ground vehicle performance and reliability modeling. He has given numerous keynote addresses and invited talks. He is an Associate editor of the journal of Terramechanics, and on the editorial board of the international journal for reliability and safety. He is co-chair of the international committee on ground vehicle reliability, and member of the SAE technical standards board. He is also co-president of the Great Lakes chapter of SIAM.

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