Development of a complete FSUM car multibody model to study the influence of friction on automotive suspension systems

[Excerpt] The development of accurate multibody dynamics models is fundamental for understanding, predicting, and improving the dynamic behavior of automotive vehicles. Such models can be applied to a wide range of applications, from passenger cars to racing vehicles, and require a detailed representation of all vehicle subsystems, including tire-road interaction, suspension, and steering systems. This work presents the development and application of a detailed multibody dynamics model of the Formula Student of the University of Minho (FSUM) single-seater vehicle, as illustrated in Fig. 1a, intended to support the analysis of vehicle handling and suspension performance under dynamic operating conditions. The complete multibody model of the car comprises 30 rigid bodies interconnected by 41 mechanical joints, including spherical, translational, revolute, universal and cylindrical types. Detailed representation of the front and rear suspension subsystems is provided in Fig. 1b-c. This results in a vehicle model with a total of 18 degrees of freedom, of which 14 are active degrees of freedom. [...]