Numerical kinematic analysis of the standard macpherson motor-vehicle suspension system

In this paper, an efficient numerical algorithm for the kinematic analysis of the standard MacPherson suspension system is presented. The kinematic analysis of the suspension mechanism is carried out in terms of the rectangular Cartesian coordinates of some defined points in the links and at the kinematic joints. Geometric constraints that fix the distances between the points belonging to the same rigid link are introduced. The nonlinear constraint equations are solved by iterative numerical methods. The corresponding linear equations of the velocity and acceleration are solved to yield the velocities and accelerations of the unknown points. The velocities and accelerations of other points of interest as well as the angular velocity and acceleration of any link in the mechanism can be calculated.