Vertical Dynamics of a Half-car Computational Model

Resumo

Vertical dynamics studies of a vehicle can be used to obtain responses to imperfections of a track.
Closely related to comfort issues, this analysis is affected mainly by the vertical movement (bounce) and alternating
oscillations such as roll and pitch. An off-road vehicle model for student competitions, such as SAE Mini-Baja,
aims to challenge students to design and build vehicles that will be put to test in tracks with critical conditions.
The main goal of this work is to analyze the vertical dynamics of an off-road vehicle prototype, using dynamic
modeling and numerical simulation. A half car 2-D vehicle model is presented in this paper. An analysis of the
system’s damped forced vibration was performed using a track function as input, simulating the disturbances that
the vehicle’s suspension suffers during competition. From this type of analysis, it was possible to obtain important
data, linked to safety, handling, driver comfort and car structure. The results revealed that factors such as stiffness
and damping of the suspension set can generate unwanted vibration frequencies, discomfort to the pilot, in addition
to compromising the structure and stability of the vehicle. Additionally, the results obtained are in accordance with
the literature.