Multi-body dynamics in full-vehicle handling analysis

This paper presents a multidegrees-of-freedom non-linear multibody dynamic model of a vehicle, comprising front and rear suspensions, steering system, road wheels, tyres and vehicle inertia. The model incorporates all sources of compliance, stiffness and damping, all with non-linear characteristics. The vehicle model is created in ADAMS (automatic dynamic analysis of mechanical systems) formulation. The model is used for the purpose of vehicle handling analysis. Simulation runs, in-line with vehicle manoeuvres specified under ISO and British Standards, have been undertaken and reported in the paper.