Parametric Study on Passive Suspension of Light Rail Vehicle (LRV)

This research project proposes the passive suspension of light rail vehicle (LRV) to
be studied parametrically. The system is modelled as a multi-body dynamic model
and used passive systems suspension which is the simplest and common type of
suspensions to isolate disturbance from the track to the car-body. One model of light
rail vehicle (LRV) will be selected and form a mathematical model for analysis
purpose. The equation of motion will be develop from the mathematical model and
then from the equation of motion the matrices of the LRV systems are derived, and it
will be translated it into MATLAB language. The response of the system under
varying parameters of suspension will be simulated computationally by using
MATLAB. In this research, the parameters are divided in 5 cases, which is for case 0
is using the nominal parameters, case 1 the nominal parameters is reduced by 20%,
case 2 the nominal parameter is reduced by 50%, case 3 the nominal parameters is
increased by 20% and for case 4 the nominal parameters is increased by 50%. For the
results, the maximum suspension deflections and the stability of each car-body on
random gradient track will be discussed.