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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A multibody model for riderless bicycle dynamics considering tire characteristics is presented. A riderless bicycle is regarded as a multibody system consisting of four rigid bodies: rear wheel, frame, front fork, and front wheel. Every two bodies are connected with a revolute joint. The mass center coordinates and Euler angles of the rigid bodies are used as the generalized coordinates to describe their positions and orientations. The system equations of motion are obtained using Lagrange equations of the first kind. Due to the existence of the three revolute constraints and the use of dependent generalized coordinates, the Lagrange multipliers are employed to account for revolute reaction forces. As for the contact between the wheel and the ground, many studies regarded the wheel as a rigid body with a knife edge, which lead to the nonholonomic constraints between the wheel and the ground.

To study the torque distribution of track and tire in the wheel-track hybrid drive vehicle driving along the shoreline, an analysis model of wheel-track hybrid drive vehicle was established by using multi-body dynamics (MBD), discrete element (DEM), and shoreline pavement construction methods. The vehicle speed, acceleration, torque, vertical load, sinkage, slip, and other indicators when the vehicle passes the shoal at different wheel speed of rotation are analyzed. The relationships between wheel speed of rotation and slip, sinkage and slip, and vertical load and driving moment were studied, and the laws that the sinkage of tires and tracks is positively related to their slippage and the driving moment of wheels and tracks is positively related to their vertical load were obtained.

Many vehicles have been equipped with air springs as elastic elements to get better performance in comfort, but absorbers may not work in an optimal state due to the variation of suspension stiffness. While the function of semi-active suspension is to enable the absorber damping to be adjusted according to different road roughness levels and to coordinate between comfort and handling. To solve the problem of matching the damping coefficient of variable stiffness suspensions represented by air springs, this paper proposed a method for calculating the optimal damping ratio of a semi-active suspension system in real-time with sprung mass acceleration and dynamic tire load to establish the objective function and suspension dynamic deflection as the constraint to reflect the unification of comfort and handling.

Vehicle tire performance is an important consideration for vehicle handling, stability, mobility, and ride comfort as well as durability. Significant efforts have been dedicated to tire modeling in the past, but there is still room to improve its accuracy. In this study, a detailed in-plane flexible ring tire model is proposed, where the tire belt is discretized, and each discrete belt segment is considered as a rigid body attached to a number of parallel tread blocks. The mass of each belt segment is accumulated at its geometric center. To test the proposed in-plane tire model, a full-vehicle model is integrated with the tire model for simulation under a special driving scenario: acceleration from rest for a few seconds, then deceleration for a few seconds on a flat-level road, and finally constant velocity on a rough road. The simulation results indicate that the tire model is able to generate tire/road contact patch forces that yield reasonable vehicle dynamic responses.

In the present study, the research of the exhaust system is performed in three steps. In the first step, the average driving degree of freedom displacement (ADDOFD) is calculated by the free modal analysis of the exhaust system. It is easy to find the reasonable location of the hanger according to the value of the ADDOFD, since it represents the relative size of some DOF's response displacement at excitation state. The second of which is to analyse the vibration isolation performance of the exhaust system based on the first step. The dynamic analysis of the exhaust system together with the powertrain is studied, by which way the unit sinusoidal excitation is applied at the powertrain's mass centre, so that the response force at the hanger can be obtained. Finally, the relationship between the constrained model of the exhaust system and the stiffness of the hanger is investigated, which is significant in engineering.

Clutch actuation systems are complex systems where hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical and electrical components are coupled. This paper presents a detailed clutch actuation model composed of components from multi-domains like mechanical and pneumatic actuation system, hydraulic boosting system, etc. Various components and subsystem models, such as the driver, engine, gear pairs, clutches, etc., are integrated into an overall vehicle system model according to the transmission power flow and control logic. The model is implemented using the Modelica programming language. The simulation of the clutch actuation system was carried out for the analysis of drivability, shift quality and vehicle overall performance.

Abrasion of the Electromechanical brake (EMB) brake pad during the braking process leads to an increase in brake gap, which adversely affects braking performance. Therefore, it is imperative to promptly detect brake pad abrasion and adjust the brake gap accordingly. However, the addition of extra gap adjustment or sensor detection devices will bring extra size and cost to the brake system. In this study, we propose an innovative EMB gap active adjustment strategy by employing modeling and analysis of the braking process. This strategy involves identifying the contact and separation points of the braking process based on the differential current signal. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that this gap adjustment strategy can effectively regulate the brake gap, mitigate the adverse effects of brake disk abrasion, and notably reduce the response time of the braking force output. Monitoring is critical to accurately control EMB clamping force.

The present study introduces a novel approach for achieving path tracking of an unmanned bicycle in its local body-fixed coordinate frame. A bicycle is generally recognized as a multibody system consisting of four distinct rigid bodies, namely the front wheel, the front fork, the body frame, and the rear wheel. In contrast to most previous studies, the relationship between a tire and the road is now considered in terms of tire forces rather than nonholonomic constraints. The body frame has six degrees of freedom, while the rear wheel and front fork each have one degree of freedom relative to the body frame. The front wheel exhibits a single degree of freedom relative to the front fork. A bicycle has a total of nine degrees of freedom.

The soft and rough terrain on the planet's surface significantly affects the ride and safety of rovers during high-speed driving, which imposes high requirements for the control of the suspension system of planet rovers. To ensure good ride comfort of the planet rover during operation in the low-gravity environment of the planet's surface, this study develops an active suspension control strategy for torsion spring and torsional damper suspension systems for planet rovers. Firstly, an equivalent dynamic model of the suspension system is derived. Based on fractal principles, a road model of planetary surface is established. Then, a fuzzy-PID based control strategy aimed at improving ride comfort for the planet rover suspension is established and validated on both flat and rough terrains.