Kinematic and dynamic analysis of passive suspension using pneumatic and flexible tire

Abstract

This study represents a new generation of tires called flexible or non-pneumatic tire. The need for air in the tire has been replaced by the 'spokes' which can bend (deform) and then straighten out again which cause more comfort in the ride. The dynamic modeling of pneumatic and flexible tires are developed and the corresponding mathematical relation of flexible tire related to the forces in translational and rotational direction was investigated. In this article, a quarter car with passive suspension system using pneumatic tire and flexible tire was simulated by MATLAB/SIMULINK and Msc. ADAMS. Both of the models are limited in vertical direction only for investigating the body displacement in translational direction which is strongly related to comfort ride. This simulation was done to validate the idea that flexible tires are more efficient in comfort ride in comparison with pneumatic counterpart. In this regard, this study investigates optimized parameters for designing the flexible tire e.g. stiffness, damping coefficient and the number of sections of tire.