Evaluation of the effectiveness of the interval computation method to simulate the dynamic behavior of subdefinite system: application on an active suspension system

A new design approach based on methods by intervals adapted to the integration of the simulation step at the earliest stage of preliminary design for dynamic systems is proposed in this study. The main idea consists on using the interval computation method to make a simulation by intervals in order to minimize the number of simulations which allow obtaining a set of solutions instead of a single one. These intervals represent the domains of possible values for the design parameters of the subdefinite system. So the parameterized model of the system is solved by interval. This avoids launching n simulations with n values for each design parameter. The proposed method is evaluated by several tests on a scalable numerical example. It has been applied to solve parameterized differential equations of a Macpherson suspension system and to study its dynamic behavior in its passive and active form. The dynamic model of the active suspension is nonlinear but linearisable. It is transformed into a parameterized state equation by intervals. The solution to this state equation is given in the form of a matrix exponential. Three digital implementations of exponential have been tested to obtain convergent results. Simulations results are presented and discussed. © 2014, Springer-Verlag France.