Title: Pitch dynamic study of a vehicle with a planar suspension system

Authors: Jian Jun Zhu, Amir Khajepour, Ebrahim Esmailzadeh

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue, West Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada. ' Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue, West Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada. ' Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street, North Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 7K4, Canada

Abstract: The suspension system of a vehicle is commonly designed such that the longitudinal connection between the vehicle chassis and the wheels is always very stiff compared with the vertical connection. Such a mechanism can isolate the vibration and absorb the shock efficiently in the vertical direction but it cannot attenuate the impact caused by road obstacles in the longitudinal direction. In order to overcome this limitation, a concept design of a planar vehicle suspension was proposed in which the rather stiff linkages in the longitudinal direction between the chassis and wheel were replaced by elastic connections so that the vibration along any direction in the wheel plane can be isolated. This paper presents the study of pitch dynamic performance of a vehicle with such a conceptual planar suspension in frequency and time domains. The comparison with a conventional suspension is also performed to exhibit the potential of the conceptual design.

Keywords: vehicle dynamics; planar suspension; pitch; vehicle supsensions; vibration isolation; conceptual design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVSMT.2010.033729

International Journal of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing, 2010 Vol.5 No.1, pp.18 - 34

Received: 27 Sep 2008
Accepted: 30 Apr 2009
Published online: 29 Jun 2010 *

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