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A range of axle suspensions, comprising hydro-pneumatic struts and diverse linkage configurations, have evolved in recent years for large size mining trucks to achieve improved ride and higher operating speeds. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of different independent front suspension linkages that have been implemented in various off-road vehicles, including a composite linkage (CL), a candle (CA), a trailing arm (TA), and a double Wishbone (DW) suspension applied to a 190 tons mining truck. Four different suspension linkages are modeled in MapleSim platform to evaluate their kinematic properties. The relative kinematic properties of the suspensions are evaluated in terms of variations in the kingpin inclination, caster, camber, toe-in and horizontal wheel center displacements considering the motion of a hydro-pneumatic strut. The results revealed the CL and DW suspensions yield superior kinematic response characteristics compared to the CA and TA suspensions.

An Active Independent Front Steering (AIFS) offers attractive potential for realizing improved directional control performance compared to the conventional Active Front Steering (AFS) system, particularly under more severe steering maneuvers. The AIFS control strategy adjusts the wheel steer angles in an independent manner so as to utilize the maximum available adhesion at each wheel/road contact and thereby compensate for cornering loss caused by the lateral load transfer. In this study, the performance potentials of AIFS are explored for vehicles experiencing greater lateral load transfers during steering maneuvers such as partly-filled tank trucks. A nonlinear yaw plane model of a two-axle truck with limited roll degree-of-freedom is developed to study the performance potentials of AIFS under different cargo fill conditions.

A new extended planar model for multi-axle articulated vehicle with nonlinear tire model is presented. This nonlinear multi-axle articulated vehicle model is specifically intended for improving the model performance in operating regimes where tire lateral force is near the point of saturation, and it has the potential to extend the specific axles model to any representative configuration of articulated vehicle model. At the same time, the extended nonlinear vehicle model can reduce the model's sensitivity to the tire cornering coefficients. Firstly, a nonlinear tire model is used in conjunction with the 6-axle planar articulated vehicle model to extend the ranges of the original linear model into the nonlinear regimes of operation. Secondly, the performance analysis of proposed nonlinear vehicle model is verified through the double lane change maneuver on different road adhesion coefficients using TruckSim software.