Analysis and Optimisation of Ride Vibration of a Heavy-Duty Truck Based on a Vertical-Pitch-Roll Driver-Vehicle Coupled Dynamic Model

Abstract

The ride comfort and the cargo safety are of great importance in the vibration design of heavy-duty vehicle. Traditional ride comfort design method based on the response of components of vehicles or interaction between human and seat overlooks the most direct criterion, the response of occupants, which makes the optimisation not targeted enough. It will be better to conduct the ride comfort design with the biodynamic response of driver. To this end, a 17-degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) vertical-pitch-roll vehicle dynamic model of a three-axle heavy-duty truck coupled with a 7 DOFs human model is developed. The ride comfort of human body under the vertical, the pitch, and the roll vibrations can be evaluated with the weighted root-mean-square (r.m.s.) acceleration of the driver in multiple directions. The flexibilities of chassis and carriage are also considered to improve the accuracy of the prediction of the ride comfort and to constrain the mounting optimisation of cab and carriage. After validation, the sensitivity analysis of the mounting system, the suspensions, and arrangement of sprung masses is carried out and significant factors to ride vibration are identified. The optimal combination of design parameters is obtained with the objective of minimizing the vibration of the driver and carriage simultaneously. The optimisation result shows that the weighted driver vibration is reduced by 27.9% and the carriage vibration is reduced by 31.8% at various speeds.