A Generic Suspension Model for Middle Class Passenger Vehicles

Detailed vehicle models are often used for the simulation of vehicle dynamics. Good results are obtained, but the development time required for new models is very high, and depends on the complexity of the simulation to be carried out. This high level of effort is needed every time a new vehicle is modelled. A generic model for a middle class European passenger vehicle, with a minimum set of parameters to correlate the model to different vehicles, is discussed in this contribution. The model should be sufficient for detecting the start of rollover in rollover simulations to the required accuracy, for example. This provided reasonable results in most cases, with a small number of vehicle specific parameters, but specific vehicle suspension arrangements caused problems. A solution for this problem – the development of a generic suspension model – is then discussed.