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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.

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.

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.