In this work. an attempt has been made to develop a programming packagefor ride analysis of off-road vehicles based upon a finite-elementformulation of vehicle suspension systems. Mathematical modelling ofgeneralised suspension systems has been carried out with severalnon-linear aspects being investigated and implemented in the programmingpackage. such as large deflection. non-linear characteristics of springsand dampers. bump stops and wheel separation. Different types of soi 1have been considered together with an appropriate modelling of vehicletracks. Several methods for time integration of dynamic equations havebeen investigated so as to deal wi th numerical instabi 1 i ty problemsexpected for off-road suspension systems which often have "stiff"differential equations of motion. Three ride analysis criteria have alsobeen considered in the programming package. Several case studies have been analysed using the developed programmingpackage. They consist of two simple case studies with known analyticalsolutions. an existing wheeled off-road vehicle with published analogcomputer resul t s , and an off-road tracked vehicle wi th knownexperimental results. The package has been validated and proved to be anacceptable tool for the ride analysis of off-road vehicles. within theapproximating assumptions considered. Several measures for futuredevelopment have also been suggested.
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