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The main purpose of this research is to investigate the optimal design of pipeline diameter in an air brake system in order to reduce the response time for driving safety using DOE (Design of Experiment) method. To achieve this purpose, this paper presents the development and validation of a computer-aided analytical dynamic model of a pneumatic brake system in commercial vehicles. The brake system includes the subsystems for brake pedal, treadle valve, quick release valve, load sensing proportional valve and brake chamber, and the simulation models for individual components of the brake system are established within the multi-domain physical modeling software- AMESim based on the logic structure. An experimental test bench was set up by connecting each component with the nylon pipelines based on the actual layout of the 4×2 commercial vehicle air brake system.

The suspension system of a heavy truck's driver seat plays an important role to reduce the vibrations transmitted to the seat occupant from the cab floor. Air-spring is widely used in the seat suspension system, for the reason that its spring rate is variable and it can make the seat suspension system keep constant ‘tuned’ frequency compared to the conventional coil spring. In this paper, vibration differential equation of air-spring system with auxiliary volume is derived, according to the theory of thermodynamic, hydrodynamics. The deformation-load static characteristic curves of air-spring is obtained, by using a numerical solution method. Then, the ADAMS model of the heavy truck's driver seat suspension system is built up, based on the structure of the seat and parameters of the air-spring and the shock-absorber. At last, the model is validated by comparing the simulation results and the test results, considering the seat acceleration PSD and RMS value.

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.

In this paper, a multi-mode active seat suspension with a single actuator is proposed and built. A one-DOF seat suspension system is modelled based on a quarter car model of commercial vehicle with an actuator which is comprised of a DC motor and a gear reducer. Aiming at improving ride comfort and reducing energy consumption, a multi-mode controller is established. According to the seat vertical acceleration and suspension dynamic travel signals, control strategies switch between three modes: active drive mode, energy harvesting mode and plug breaking mode.

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.

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.

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.

To solve the dynamic response problem that contains uncertain parameters needs, the stochastic differential equations needs to be calculated. Interval analysis has been widely used to solve engineering problems which contain many uncertain parameters usually. But the numerical solution method for stochastic differential equations based on the interval analysis method was seldom investigated. In this study a new numerical interval method for the stochastic differential equations based on the Euler's method is presented, which can be used to solve the linear system effectively and efficiently. The probabilistic and interval dynamics analysis of a two-degree-of-freedom bike car model with uncertain parameters are presented.

Hydraulic power steering system, which can reduce the steering hand force by applying the output from a hydraulic actuator, has been widely used in vehicles. In this paper, a detailed steer model including steering column, steering trapezium, and detailed hydraulic power steering system which is consisting of steering cylinder, relief valve, rotary valve, pump and hydraulic lines were established, and a multi-body model of a heavy truck was established to connect with the hydraulic power steering system. Modelica simulation language, which can be efficiently used to investigate multi-domain problems, was used to in the modeling and simulation of the power steering system and the vehicle. The simulation was carried out to identify the effects of design variables on the lateral stability of the vehicle. The application of Modelica for investigating multi-domain problems is also demonstrated.

Steering returnability is an important index for evaluating vehicle handling performance. A systematic method is presented in this paper to reduce the high yaw rate residue and the steering response time for a light duty truck in the steering return test. The vehicle multibody model is established in ADAMS, which takes into consideration of the frictional loss torque and hydraulically assisted steering property in the steering mechanism, since the friction, which exists in steering column, spherical joint, steering universal joint, and steering gear, plays an important role in vehicle returnability performance. The accuracy of the vehicle model is validated by road test and the key parameters are determined by executing the sensitivity analysis, which shows the effect of each design parameter upon returnability performance.

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.

The automatic mechanical transmission (AMT) was designed by automobile manufacturers to provide a better driving experience, especially in cities where congestion frequently causes stop-and-go traffic patterns. It uses electronic sensors, processors, hydraulic or pneumatic actuators execute clutch actuation and gear shifts on the command of the driver. Such systems coupled with various physical domains have great influence on the dynamic behavior of the vehicle, such as shift quality, driveability, acceleration, etc. This paper presents a detailed AMT model composed of various components from multi-domains like mechanical systems (clutch, gear pair, synchronizer, etc.), pneumatic actuator systems (clutch actuation system, gear select actuation system, gear shift actuation system, etc.). Various components and subsystem models, such as the vehicle, engine, AMT, wheels, etc., are integrated into an overall vehicle system model according to the transmission power flow and control logic.

The aerodynamic effects not only directly affect the acceleration and the fuel economy of the race car, but also have a great influence on the handling of the race car. In this paper, the vehicle multibody dynamic model with “double-wishbone suspension” and “rack and pinion steering” is established, in order to obtain aerodynamic parameters, the aerodynamic model of the vehicle is established, and the aerodynamic parameters were calculated by using CFD. In order to obtain the optimal travel track, the track model is established, according to weights allocation of the smallest curvature of each curve and the shortest curve to optimize the optimal route for racing. The influence of aerodynamic effects on the stability of vehicle control is analyzed through simulation of Endurance Racing to evaluate the maximum lateral acceleration、roll angle and other performance.

This paper describes a simplified model to identify sprung mass using golden section method, the model treats the unsprung mass vertical acceleration as input and the sprung mass vertical acceleration as output, which can avoid the nonlinear influence of trye. Unsprung mass can be also calculated by axle load and the identified sprung mass. This study carries out road test on the vehicle ride comfort and takes a scheme that the group of 20 km/h is used to identify sprung mass and the group of 80 km/h is used to verify the identification result. The similarity of the results from the simulation and experiments performed are, for the sprung mass, 98.59%. A conclusion can be drawn that the simple method to measure the sprung mass in the suspension systems in used vehicles, such as the vehicle shown here, is useful, simple and has sufficient precision.

There are many uncertain parameters in shock absorbers, which are induced by the manufacturing error, the wear of components and the aging of materials in real vehicle environment. These uncertainties often cause some deterioration of vehicle performance. To optimize the ride characteristic of a vehicle when the shock absorber includes uncertain parameters, the robust design method is used. In this paper, a Twin Tube shock absorber fluid system model has established on the multi-domain modeling environment. This model not only includes the commonly used parameters of the shock absorber but also takes into account the structure parameters of various valves in the shock absorber, which is more detailed and accurate than those models in the past literature. The robust design of the shock absorber parameters is successfully approached using the co-simulation technique, and the ride comfort performance of the vehicle is also improved.

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.

Suspension kinematics and compliance strongly influence the handling performance of the vehicle. The kinematics and compliance characteristics are determined by the suspension geometry and stiffness of suspension bodies and elastic components. However, it is usually inefficient to model all the joints, bushings, and linkage deformation in a full vehicle model. By transforming the complex modeling problem into a data-driven problem tends to be a good solution. In this research, the neural-network-based suspension kinematics and compliance model is built and implemented into a 17 DOF full vehicle model, which is a hybrid model with state variables expressed in the global coordinate system and vehicle coordinate system. The original kinematics and compliance characteristics are derived from multibody dynamics simulation of the suspension system level.

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.