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NVH quality is one of the most important criteria by which people judge the design of a vehicle. The Powertrain Mounting System (PMS), which can reduce the vibration from engine to vehicle cab as well as the inside noise, has attained significant attention. Much research has been done on the isolation method for three- and four-point mounting. But the six-point mounting system, which is usually equipped in commercial vehicle, is seldom studied and should be paid more attention. In this paper, the support rod installed on the upside of the transmission case is considered as a flexible body. Thus a rigid-flexible coupling model of PMS is established and the necessity of the established model is analyzed by comparing the simulation results of the new model and those of the conventional model.

The ride comfort of the commercial vehicle is mainly affected by several vibration isolation systems such as the primary suspension system, engine mounting system and the cab mounting system. A rigid-flexible coupling model for the truck was built and analyzed in multi-body environment (ADAMS). The method applying the excitation on the wheels center and the engine mountings in time domain was presented. The variables' effects on the ride performance were studied by design of experiment (DOE). The optimal design was obtained by the co-simulation of the ADAMS/View, iSIGHT and Matlab. It was found that the vertical root mean square (RMS) acceleration and frequency-weighted RMS acceleration on the seat track were reduced about 17% and 11% respectively at different speeds relative to baseline according to ISO 2631-1.

The optimization of vehicle suspension kinematic/compliance characteristics is of significant importance in the chassis development. Practical suspension system contains many uncertainties which may result from poorly known or variable parameters or from uncertain inputs. However, in most suspension optimization processes these uncertainties are not accounted for. This study explores the use of Chebyshev polynomials to model complex nonlinear suspension systems with interval uncertainties. In the suspension model, several kinematic and compliance characteristics are considered as objectives to be optimized. Suspension bushing characteristics are considered as design variables as well as uncertain parameters. A high-order response surface model using the zeros of Chebyshev polynomials as sampling points is established to approximate the suspension kinematic/compliance model.

Nowadays, studying the human body response in a seated position has attracted a lot of attention as environmental vibrations are transferred to the human body through floor and seat. This research has constructed a multi-body biodynamic human model with 17 degrees of freedom (DOF), including the backrest support and the interaction between feet and ground. Three types of human biodynamic models are taken into consideration: the first model doesn't include the interaction between the feet and floor, the second considers the feet and floor interaction by using a high stiffness spring, the third one includes the interaction by using a soft spring. Based on the whole vehicle model, the excitation to human body through feet and back can be obtained by ride simulation. The simulation results indicate that the interaction between feet and ground exerts non-negligible effect upon the performance of the whole body vibration by comparing the three cases.

Tyre behavior plays an important role in vehicle dynamics simulation. The Magic Formula Tyre Model is a semi-empirical tyre model which describes tyre behavior quite accurately in the handling simulation. The Magic Formula Tyre Model needs a set of parameters to describe the tyre properties; the determination of these parameters is nontrivial task due to its nonlinear nature and the presence of a large number of coefficients. In this paper, the homotopy algorithm is applied to the parameter identification of Magic Formula tyre model. A morphing parameter is introduced to correct the optimization process; as a result, the solution is directed converging to the global optimal solution, avoiding the local convergence. The method uses different continuation methods to globally optimize the parameters, which ensures that the prediction of the Magic Formula model can be very close to the test data at all stages of the optimization process.

The design of suspension affects the vehicle dynamics such as ride comfort and handling stability. Nonlinear characteristics and friction are important characteristics of suspension system, and the influence on vehicle dynamic performance cannot be ignored. Based on the seven-degree-of-freedom vehicle vibration nonlinear model with friction, the vibration response process of the vehicle and the influence of suspension friction on vehicle ride comfort and suspension action process were studied. The results show that friction will significantly affects the simulation of ride comfort and coincide with the function of the shock absorber. The suspension shock absorbers of vehicles were optimized with and without suspension friction. The results showed that the suspension tended to choose softer shock absorbers when there was friction. However, both of the two optimizations are able to improve the ride comfort of vehicles, and the simulation results were similar.

Elastomeric bushings are widely used in the passenger cars to make the cars have an ideal vehicle Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) performance. However, elastomeric bushings also influence on the vehicle handling, ride and the durability performance of each component in the vehicle suspension system. It is relatively easy and cost effective to change the compliance of the bushing components compared with other method because they are made of elastomeric materials. The design of an elastomeric bushing is really a big challenge. One of the main difficulties comes from the different target compliance is wanted according to the handling, ride and durability demand at each different orientation (indicated by X Y Z) of the bushing. In this paper the following procedure was used for optimization of suspension elastomeric bushing compliance. Firstly, a detailed multi-body model was built including the nonlinear bushing effects and lower control arm flexibility.

This paper investigates a hierarchical optimization procedure for the optimum synthesis of a double-axle steering mechanism by considering the dynamic load of a vehicle which is seldom discussed in the previous literature. Firstly, a multi-body model of double-axle steering is presented by characterizing the detailed leaf spring effect. Accordingly, the influences of dynamic load including the motion interference of steering linkage resulted from the elastic deformation of leaf spring, and the effects of wheel slip angle and the position discrepancy of wheel speed rotation centers are explored systematically. And then, a hierarchical optimization method based on target cascading methodology is proposed to classify the design variables of double-axle steering mechanism into four levels. At last, a double-axle steering mechanism of a heavy-duty truck is utilized to demonstrate the validity of this method.

Active steering systems can help the driver to master critical driving situations. This paper presents a fuzzy logic control strategy on active steering vehicle based on a multi-body vehicle dynamic model. The multi-body vehicle dynamic model using ADAMS can accurately predict the dynamic performance of the vehicle. A new hybrid steering scheme including both active front steering (applying an additional front steering angle besides the driver input) and rear steering is presented to control both yaw velocity and sideslip angle. A set of fuzzy logic rules is designed for the active steering controller, and the fuzzy controller can adjust both sideslip angle and yaw velocity through the co-simulation between ADAMS and the Matlab fuzzy control unit with the optimized membership function. To ensure the design of high-quality fuzzy control rules, a rule optimization strategy is introduced.

A Special Analytical Target Cascading (SATC) process is developed for design problem which is difficult to ascertain the targets cascaded from upper level to lower level. The methodology is applied to achieve improving Handling Performance and Ride Quality (HPRQ) of a passenger car. A bi-level hierarchical structure with target-transforming process is established based on conceptual suspension model and multi-body models. DOE, RSM and a combined optimization method of simulated annealing and Programming Quadratic Line search is applied to execute the optimization process. The result shows that HPRQ is improved through special ATC based on CSM and multi-body modeling technique.

To design and optimize the vehicle driveline is necessary to decrease the fuel consumption and improve dynamic performance. This paper describes a methodology to optimize the driveline design including the axle ratio, transmission shift points and transmission shift ratios considering uncertainty. A new and flexible tool for modeling multi-domain systems, Modelica, is used to carry out the modeling and analysis of a vehicle, and the multi-domain model is developed to determine the optimum design in terms of fuel economy, with determinability. Secondly, a robust optimization is carried out to find the optimum design considering uncertainty. The results indicate that the fuel economy and dynamic performance are improved greatly.

The sewing machine has been widely used in various aspects of life and it is essential to study its kinematic and dynamic characteristics. A dynamic model of flexible multi-link mechanism for sewing machine including joints with clearance is established to analysis its dynamic response in the present work. The configuration of the sewing machine mainly included five subsystems, feeding mechanism, needle bar mechanism, looper mechanism, shearing mechanism and adjusting mechanism. Since the sewing machine mainly consist of linkage mechanisms that are connected by revolute joints and translational joints, the existence of clearances in the joints and the flexibility of crankshafts and linkage are important factors that affect the dynamic performance. Even little clearance can lead to vibration and fatigue phenomena, lack of precision or even make overall behavior as random.

To provide a greater weight capacity, the tandem axle which is a group of two or more axles situated close together has been used on most heavy truck. In general, the reaction moments during braking cause a change in load distribution among both axles of the tandem suspension. Since load transfer among axles of a tandem suspension can lead to premature wheel lockup, tandem-axle geometry and the brake force distribution among individual axles of a tandem suspension have a pronounced effect on braking efficiency. The braking efficiency has directly influence on the vehicle brake distance and vehicle travelling direction stability in any road condition, so how to improve the braking efficiency is researched in this paper. The load transfer among individual axles is not only determined by vehicle deceleration but also by the actual brake force of each axle for tandem axle suspension, which increases the difficulty of braking efficiency improving.

As is known to all, there are some contradictions between the handling and ride performance during the design process of vehicles. Sometimes owing to serious collisions of each criterion in the high-dimensional solution space, the common method to deal with the contradiction is to transform into a single target according to weights of each objective, which may not obtain a desired result. A multi-criteria approach is therefore adopted to optimize both properties and the result of a multi-criteria design is not a unique one but a series of balanced solutions. This paper is focused on the robust design of a simplified vehicle model in terms of not only ride comfort but also handling and stability using a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) method. Using the proposed method, the conflicting performance requirements can be better traded off. One of the most important indexes to characterize the vertical ride comfort is the acceleration of the sprung mass.

Electric vehicles driven by in-wheel-motor have the advantages of compact structure and high transmission efficiency, which is one of the most ideal energy-saving, environmentally friendly, and safe driving forms in the future. However, the addition of the in-wheel-motor significantly increases the unsprung mass of the vehicle, resulting in a decrease in the mass ratio of the vehicle body to the wheel, which will deteriorate the ride comfort and safety of the vehicle. To improve the vibration performance of in-wheel-motor driven vehicles, a semi-active inerter-spring-damper (ISD) suspension with in-wheel-motor (IWM) dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) of the electric wheel is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a structure of in-wheel-motor DVA is proposed, which converts the motor into a dynamic vibration absorber of the wheel to suppress the vibration of the unsprung mass.

Increased focus on vehicle comfort and ride has led the automotive industry to look into low vibration, noise and hardness alternative designs for powertrain system components. In this paper, the vibration theory and dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) theory is presented. The modal analysis of propeller shaft assembly has been accomplished. Based on dynamic vibration absorber principle, performance parameters of dynamic vibration absorber are matched and structure is also designed. LMS equipment is applied to verify the natural frequency of absorber samples. The matching of stiffness and damping of DVA is presented. The dynamic response of drive shaft system based on the mass ratio of DVA is researched in this paper. Results from simulations and tests indicates that the amplitude of propeller shaft resonance can be effectively reduced by attaching a DVA to the long propeller shaft.

The imbalance of propeller shaft is an excitation to the vehicle structure and causes noise and vibration. This paper presents an experimental study of effects of propeller shaft imbalance on vehicle vibration characteristics. A two-piece propeller shaft with unbalance is used in real vehicle test. The vehicle vibration is characterized by accelerations of the cabin floor and of the bearing which supports the propeller shaft. Through the experiment, some interesting phenomena are observed.

The rubber bushing is the key component to suppress vibration in the suspension system, an accurate constitutive model of rubber bushing should capture the amplitude and frequency dependency. Based on the lumped parameter model, three types of rubber bushing models are applied and compared, including the common Kelvin-Voigt model. To evaluate the model parameter and suitable frequency range, the quasi-static and dynamic tests have been performed. Comparing with the testing result, the fractional Kelvin-Voigt model combined with Berg’s friction has the minimum relative error of dynamic stiffness on the whole. Finally, two examples of chassis bushing under different loading conditions are presented. The rubber force and deflection are analyzed in both the time domain and the frequency domain, and the results show the difference of stiffness and hysteresis loop relative to frequency.

In the petroleum and gas industry, cargo truck is one of the most important ways to transfer the skid-mounting from the manufacturer to the job location. Under the condition of bumpy road surface, the random vibration from the ground can easily cause the resonance of the internal equipment components of the skid-mounting, produce large deformation in the pipeline and equipment connection, and even the equipment will be damaged. In this paper, the finite element analysis model and dynamic rigid flexible coupling model of a TEG (Triethyleneglycol) dehydration unit regeneration skid-mounting are established by using the finite element analysis and multi-body dynamics software. The modal analysis of the skid and the vibration of the whole vehicle under different road excitation and driving conditions are carried out. Two solutions are proposed to improve the anti-vibration ability of the skid, and comparative analysis is made.

In order to reasonably match the variable stiffness and location of the Powertrain Mounting System (PMS) and optimize the ride comfort of commercial vehicle, a thirteen degrees of freedom (DOF) model of a commercial vehicle was established in Adams/view. Specially, the support rod installed on the upside of the transmission case was modeled as a flexible body. The vibration isolation provided by the PMS was evaluated in three aspects: the energy decoupling of the powertrain, the response force of the mount and the displacement of the powertrain. The energy decoupling ratio, the force RMS of the mount when force excitation was applied on the powertrain and the displacement of the powertrain Center of Gravity (C.G) when displacement excitation was applied on the vehicle chassis were selected as the optimal target. Adams and MATLAB were integrated into the optimization software iSIGHT to optimize the PMS. NSGA-II is used to obtain some Pareto-optimal solutions of PMS.