Computational Analysis of a Concept of Rear Suspension System for Off- Road Vehicle 2012-36-0425

The studies in the field of vehicle dynamics have been performed since the beginnings of the automobile industry, however in relation to advancements in embedded technologies for greater security and performance of vehicles in adverse conditions, research on this subject, gained a greater intensity in recent decades. Several research groups have sought to understand and model the real dynamic behavior of vehicles subject to the conditions imposed by the irregularities of the soil, in order to obtain suspensions of innovative concepts for vehicles that have high reliability and dynamic performance car. This paper presents a study for a cinematic concept of independent rear suspension, applied to off-road vehicles (off road). Thus, the analysis was performed using the software MSC Adams car, a type of vehicle suspension traditional double wishbone front with direction of tendency geometry to the oversteer effect and rear suspension arms overlaid with guiding bar. In these simulations allows perform an analysis of the behavior of the change in camber and convergence of the rear wheels during work vertical of the suspension by the method of kinematic analysis, using the theory of instantaneous centers of rotation. The concept developed is a modification of suspension of overlapping arms (double wishbone), with an addition of a guiding bar. The simulation results show the combined effect of the variation in camber and especially the variation in the effect of convergence in the oversteer of the vehicle, which was verified in experimental tests on a vehicle off-road mini-baja. Furthermore it has been found beneficial effect at the rolling of the chassis on the difference of change at the convergence of the wheels, which involves a tendency of exit from the rear of the vehicle. Based on these results verified the validity of the applicability on the suspension of arms superimposed with guiding bar for off-road vehicles, especially the mini-baja, which one of main characteristics is sought to obtain the ability to perform at the lowest curves possible radius.