Design And Optimization Of Suspension System For The Light Amphibious Vehicle

The Light Amphibious Vehicle (LAV) is a special kind of all terrain reliable vehicle thathas the ability of both being driven off the road and flying in the air. The design requiressimple structure, light mass and high reliability. In order to ensure the vehicle’s handlingstability and ride comfort and some off-road driving ability mainly by giving consideration tothe vehicle’s taking off and landing, we designed and optimized the suspension of a LAVwith mode selection, parameter design and performance optimization.According to the requirements, we designed and optimized the suspension of a LAVwith reference to the structure of landing gear on the rotor aircraft. We designed thefundamental parameters first of all. Based on the theory of suspension design, we determinedthe main parameters, calculated and verified the stiffness, and then based on the vehicle’shandling stability and ride comfort, we got the optimum damping ratio. Secondly, wedesigned the spring and the damper components. According to the structure of shock absorberon landing gear, hydro-pneumatic suspension is selected. We calculated the piecewise linearcharacteristics of optimum damping and the properties of hydro-pneumatic spring. Thirdly,we designed the original suspension and established the model. The double wishbonesuspension is selected through material checking to research and compare the type of landinggear and suspension. We made the original design, and then built the virtual prototype model.Fourthly, the suspension guide mechanism is optimized based on the DOE method. Weanalyzed the wheel positioning parameters, simulated the original suspension assembly modelwith parallel wheel travel analysis, and then optimized the original model through DOE tomeet the design requirements. Finally, we provide some suggestions on the design for thevehicle’s taking off and landing. With referring to the shock absorber, we can verify thealready designed hydro-pneumatic suspension. And we give a evaluation for the LAV’sperformances through steady state cornering test, random input running test and drop test.We had established the design methods, processes and system through the research onthe LAV’s suspension. According to the requirements of LAV, we had made the LAV’s suspension that meets the performances with technical methods as mode selection,theoretical analysis, parameter calculation and experiment optimization.