Comparative study on multibody vehicle dynamics models based on subsystem synthesis method using Cartesian and joint coordinates

The subsystem synthesis method has been developed in order to improve computational efficiency for a multibody vehicle dynamics model. Using the subsystem synthesis method, equations of motion of the base body and each subsystem can be solved separately. In the subsystem synthesis method, various coordinate systems can be used and various integration methods can be applied in each subsystem, as long as the effective mass matrix and the effective force vector are properly produced. In this paper, comparative study has been carried out for the subsystem synthesis method with Cartesian coordinates and with joint relative coordinates. Two different integration methods such as an explicit integrator and an explicit implicit integrator are employed. In order to see the accuracy and computational efficiency from the different models based on the different coordinate systems and different integration methods, a rough terrain run simulations has been carried out with a 6 x 6 off-road multibody vehicle model. (C) 2012 The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.