The main functions of an automotive suspension system are to provide vehicle support, stability and directional control during handling conditions and to provide effective isolation from road disturbance. These different tasks result in conflicting design requirements. Directional control and stability requires a suspension that is neither very stiff nor very soft. Insensitivity to external loads requires a stiff suspension, whereas good ride comfort demands a soft suspension. In a conventional passive suspension system, the designer is faced with the problem of choosing the suspension stiffness and damping parameters, which inevitably involves a difficult compromise in view of the wide range of conditions over which a vehicle operates. Ride and handling performances of a vehicle suspension system often present engineers conflicting design goals. For decades, engineers have studied active control for vehicle suspension systems to resolve this conflict. The intent of the system is to replace the classical passive elements by a controlled system that can supply unlimited force to the system. This type of active suspension system has proven capable of achieving improvement over passive systems* The objective for this work is to study and develop a test facility that can improve the state-of-the-art in indoor vehicle suspension simulation testing on a quarter-car vehicle.In summary, a new quarter-car test rig has been designed and built. In an attempt to provide the concept, a well known control scheme, used for this application & in replicating vehicle response signals, we decided to compile a machine, working at much less input cost.

This report documents the design and fabrication of a tracked automotive test rig vehicle developed to investigate the feasibility of advanced automotive components for potential use in future high water speed amphibians. Advanced components included in the design are a hydrostatic drive train for land and water propulsion, a hydropneumatic suspension system, two speed final drives and micro computer control systems. Volume I includes detailed descriptions of the various test bed major systems and components along with engineering analyses to support their design development . Characteristics of major test bed elements are defines along the overall test bed characteristics. Estimated land and water performance and weight and mass properties are also provided for the test bed. Volume II provides the details of the hydrostatic drive train control system. Tracked vehicle design, Tracked amphibians, Test bed, Hydrostatic drive system, Hydropneumatic suspension system, Waterjets, Micro-computer control, Hydraulics land mobility, Water mobility. (jes).

Proceedings from the 14th European Conference for Mathematics in Industry held in Madrid present innovative numerical and mathematical techniques. Topics include the latest applications in aerospace, information and communications, materials, energy and environment, imaging, biology and biotechnology, life sciences, and finance. In addition, the conference also delved into education in industrial mathematics and web learning.