Multibody Dynamics and Terramechanics-based modeling and simulation of Quarter-Car with Suspension

Abstract While tires only compress when acted upon by a load in on-road scenarios, in off-road conditions, on the other hand, the tires not only undergo compression but also sinkage into the ground, in a manner that depends on the terrain. The tire-ground contact, in turn, affects the forces acting on the suspension system. Hence, it is necessary to study the vertical dynamic response of a system in off-road conditions by accounting for the terramechanics phenomenon (tire-terrain interface). The forces acting at the tire and terrain interface in off-road conditions have been studied in terramechanics separately; however, their integration with multibody systems is relatively less explored. In this paper, a multibody dynamic-based modeling and simulation of a quarter car with a linear spring-damper suspension system for off-road vehicles is presented. The generalized external forces are obtained using the Bekker-Wong based soil pressure-sinkage approach for two different kind of multibody systems interacting with sandy loam terrain. This model is integrated with the Tangent Space Ordinary Differential Equations of the quarter car and suspension system and solved using numerical integration techniques. Thus, by accounting for the terramechanics in the multibody system, the technique provides a more realistic response of the system in off-road scenarios.