A Generic Multibody Vehicle Model for Simulating Handling and Braking

SUMMARY A vehicle system dynamics model is presented that captures the essential braking and handling behavior of an automobile with independent suspensions on a flat surface. The model, which has 18 degrees of freedom, is described in sufficient detail for an engineer to reproduce it with a multibody simulation program. Further, a stand-alone computer program based on the model has been put on the internet for interested readers to download and run. The model has a simple generic representation of suspension kinematics that can represent the behavior of most independent suspensions. The generic model is demonstrated using a previously published vehicle description (the IAVSD Iltis multibody benchmark) and compared with a detailed multibody model. Close agreement was found between the two models both for eigenvalues and for nonlinear time history responses.