Computational Simulation of Vertical Dynamics for an Off-Road Vehicle by Using Multibody Models 2017-36-0441

In the last decades, the improvement of the automotive industry and the raising market exigence have stimulated studies in vehicle dynamics. That studies force the companies to focus their efforts in producing new conceptions and optimizing the existing ones, being able to obtain faster, safer, and more comfortable vehicles. The evolution of computing has made the task of making numerical simulations for complex models of vehicles. This allow the engineers to reproduce the real dynamic behavior of the vehicle submitted to a wide range of scenarios. Therefore, this study aims to use the multibody method to model and simulate, through computers, the vertical dynamic behavior of an off-road vehicle (baja) with a Double Wishbone suspension in both front and rear. In order to do this task, experimental data of the suspension parameters were analyzed, and associated with the vertical dynamics studies, they worked as a basis for the input for the mathematical models of the entire car used in the multibody environment. As a result, the sprung mass was evaluated, as well as the influence of the suspension damping and the wheel pressure effects in a swept sine excitation for the complete model of the car. The changing in the vertical behavior of the vehicle has an important hole among all the simulations, due to the roll and pitch provoked by an asymmetric mass center. All of these studies are essential for obtaining abetter comprehension of the existing phenomena during a range of situations that an off-road vehicle can be submitted.