Multi-body dynamics analysis of the ride quality of an off-road articulated truck

This paper describes a multibody model of an off-road utility truck and concentrates on the prediction of ride quality. In particular, the paper presents two approaches to simulating ride quality - 1. the traditional frequency domain analysis using a linear model and 2. a more complete time domain analysis using a non-linear vehicle model. It is shown that the differences between the predictions of the two methods are not significant enough to require the use of non-linear models during, for instance, parametric studies at the design stage of a vehicle.