Distributed parameter models for vehicle–suspension systems

Abstract

Recent advances in the modelling of complex distributed parameter systems incorporating discrete dynamic components (such as a continuously elastic chassis attached to lumped parameter suspension and control components) and the active control of such devices have appeared in the literature. These techniques are extremely efficient and make possible the notion of real time control of suspension kinematics and forces, as well as of chassis motion. In the present paper, the dynamic analysis of a class of systems which includes multiple–point connected discrete–distributed structures is accomplished using Green's function methods in conjunction with a newly developed hierarchical algorithm for eigenvalue extraction. The modal analysis of such systems, wherein a general rigid body possessing translational and rotational degrees of freedom is connected to a distributed substructure at multiple points, is addressed in a compact and efficient way.