Dynamic simulation of a vehicle with semi-trailing A-arm suspensions

In this paper the transient dynamic analysis of a vehicle with semi-trailing A-arm suspensions is presented. The equations of motion are formulated using a two step transformation. Initially, the formulation is written in terms of a dynamically equivalent system of particles. The equations of motion are then transformed to the relative joint variables. For open chains, this process automatically eliminates all of the non-working constraint forces and leads to an efficient solution and integration of the equations of motion. The results of the simulation indicate the simplicity and generality of the dynamic formulation.