Multibody modelling and handling analysis of a 1/5 scale vehicle

The aim of the thesis work that is presented here is to describe the multibody model of a remote controlled (RC) scaled vehicle and study its handling behaviour at different driving conditions with the help of building tools and simulations in the Adams/Car work environment. The multibody model will help in ascertaining the validity of such experimental tests that can be performed on the scaled vehicle in the future by comparing with the simulation results presented here. The effect of Finite element (FE) anti-roll bar subsystems in the suspension and full vehicle assemblies will in particular be addressed in the results section. The work here consists of the following broad sections; the first section will present the reader with an overview of the multibody approach to vehicle dynamics and the Adams/Car environment. It will more specifically have a discussion on how the solver works and will be followed by a section with an elaborate discussion on the scaled vehicle and its depiction on the software environment. Each template and subsystem that has been modelled will be explained in detail, carrying information about the different properties and constraints. The following section will deal with the different simulations that were set up to be performed on the complete vehicle and suspension assemblies and the final section will deal with the results and the consequent interpretation of said results which will aid in understanding the behaviour of the vehicle. The discussions also include an outline on the behaviour of the front and rear suspension systems of the scaled vehicle making use of the suspension test-rig available within the ADAMS/Car environment. The other software programs that were majorly used for the actualization of this thesis work are SolidWorks and Matlab. A SolidWorks model of the steering system already available with the research group was used to understand the mechanism and create a viable translation of the same on Adams/Car and Matlab was primarily used for characterizing the damper and spring behaviour needed for Adams/Car and for post processing of results obtained from the full-vehicle and suspension simulations.