Solution Approaches to Differential Equations of Mechanical System Dynamics: A Case Study of Car Suspension System

Abstract

Solution of a dynamic system is commonly demanding when analytical approaches are used. In order to solve numerically, describing the motion dynamics using differential equations is becoming indispensable. In this article, Newton's second law of motion is used to derive the equation of motion the governing equation of the dynamic system. A quarter model of the suspension system of a car is used as a case and sinusoidal road profile input was considered for modeling. The state space representation was used to reduce the second order differential equation of the dynamic system of suspension model to the first order differential equation. Among the available numerical methods to solve differential equations, Euler method has been employed and the differential equation is coded MATLAB. The numerical result of the second degree of freedom, quarter suspension system demonstrated that the approach of using numerical solution to a differential equation of dynamic system is suitable to easily simulate and visualize the system performance.