Research on thermal-mechanical coupled characteristics of military vehicle suspension system

In order to solve the problem of excessive temperature rising of damper in military vehicle suspension system that could lead to oil leakage and finally cause the damper invalidation, a comprehensive model is proposed innovatively in this work. The proposed model includes mechanical dynamics of the vehicle suspension system coupled with its thermal properties. Moreover a thermal-mechanical coupled model was established by using Matlab/Simulink, which reflected the closed-loop positive feedback system. Under the conditions of different suspension parameters and operating modes, the curves to reveal the damper temperature rising characteristics were obtained by simulation and computation. Research results show that: along with the decline of road rank, the more increase of vehicle velocity, unsprung mass or load wheel stiffness, the higher the damper temperature is. Furthermore sprung mass and suspension stiffness have no effect on the damper temperature rising characteristic.