A Nonlinear Truck Model and its Treatment as a Multibody System

Abstract

A planar vertical truck model with nonlinear suspension and its multibody system formulation are presented. The equations of motion of the model form a system of differential-algebraic equations (DAEs). Nonlinear suspension elements for the interconnection of the axle and the chassis and an analytic expression for their force laws are introduced. All equations are given explicitly, including a complete set of parameter values, consistent initial values, and a sample road excitation. Moreover, the different formulations of the equations of motion with the constraints on the position, velocity or acceleration level, a state space formulation and a linearized formulation are easily obtained. Thus the truck model allows various investigations of the specific DAE effects and represents a test problem for algorithms in control theory, mechanics of multibody systems and numerical analysis. An eigenvalue analysis of the linearized equations and a time integration show the properties of the model.