Front suspension supports the wheels in the front with the help of a solid axle. The front suspension stabilizes the
vehicle to the road and helps to absorb the bumps of the road. There are two types of front suspension used in the
Truck Library.
The steering system mechanism permits the driver to guide the truck along the rod and turn right or left as desired.
The steering mechanism includes the steering wheel which the driver regulates the steering gear which converts the
rotary motion of the wheel into straight line motion.
The stabilizer bar helps to control body roll on turns. The Assembly Wizard allows selection of two types of stabilizer
bars, single piece and two piece.
The Shock Absorber system models a conventional shock absorber and the bushings at
the top and bottom of the shock.
The system has is modeled with two rigid bodies, a rod and a tube. Force in the shock
is modeled using the spring damper element in MotionView. Forces
generated by the shock are normally a function of the velocity between the two
bodies. Shock data is normally measured on a shock dynamometer. Shock absorber force
is normally non-linear and the extension direction normally generates more force
than the compression direction. A wide variety of shock forces can be described
using the expression builder and the force element found in the shock absorber
system.
The shock absorber resolves into two different joint types based on the selection in
the Assembly Wizard.
Shock Absorber with Inline Joints
The inline joints represent the joints at the piston to tube location and at the rod
to top of tube location.
Shock Absorber with Cylindrical Joints
In a cylindrical joint type shock, the two inline joints are replaced with a single
cylindrical joint and located at the top of the shock tube.
Auto Damper
The AutoDamper is a force-velocity model designed to easily simulate a shock absorber
used in ground vehicles. The damper force generated is positive during compression
and negative during expansion.