Computer Simulation of Vehicle Performance

The work described in this paper is a part of the activities in developing a prototype of low cost utility vehicle, which was designed and built based on available power trains and drive lines. In predicting the performance of the vehicle, there is a mathematical model readily available. However, since several terms in the model are speed dependent, it is time consuming and tedious to solve it by hand. Therefore, the use of computer in processing the calculation is a must by nowadays standard of practice. The equation of motion resulting from the mathematical model, in this case, is solved using the explicit central difference technique, which is easy to implement, yet accurate.