SUSPENSION SIMULATION MODEL VERIFICATION THROUGH EXPERIMENTAL DATA FOR LATERAL FORCE IN FIGURE-8 TESTING

摘要

Research is being done on vehicles and their suspensions to find ways to increase the safety of the operators and passengers by maintaining the cars ability to maintain control and stability. The objective of this work is to increase the stability of an off-road vehicle under harsh driving conditions. The current research is focused on developing a simulation model of a semi-active suspension for such vehicles. A Mini-Baja car that was built and raced by the Georgia Southern Mechanical Engineering students was used for the experimental verification of the simulation model. The parameters for the Mini-Baja were used to create a CarSim simulation model. A Honeywell 6-way IMU was mounted on the actual Mini-Baja to measure the accelerations as well as the rotational movement of the car around all three axes. The IMU was interfaced with an Arduino microcontroller using a CAN bus to record all the measurements attained during the vehicle's operations. In addition, a GPS unit was used to track the GPS coordinates of the vehicle's path and record the speed of the vehicle. Also, a LCD display was used to display the speed of the car during operation for the driver. Tests were simulated at a set speed and then the results were compared with experimental data and necessary modifications were made to the simulation model. This work will be used to help in future research which can be applied to full size vehicles and ATVs or UTVs for safer operations.