Efficient optimisation of a vehicle suspension system, using a gradient-based approximation method, Part 1: Mathematical modelling

A methodology is proposed for the efficient determination of gradient information, when performing gradient based optimisation of an off-road vehicle’s suspension system. The methodology is applied to a computationally expensive, non-linear vehicle model, that exhibits severe numerical noise. A recreational off-road vehicle is modelled in MSC.ADAMS, and coupled to MATLAB for the execution of the optimisation. The successive approximation method, Dynamic-Q, is used for the optimisation of the spring and damper characteristics. Optimisation is performed for both ride comfort and handling. The determination of the objective function value is performed using computationally expensive numerical simulations.This paper proposes a non-linear pitch-plane model, to be used for the gradient information, when optimising ride comfort. When optimising for handling, a non-linear four wheel model, that includes roll, is used. The gradients of the objective function and constraint functions are obtained through the use of central finite differences, within Dynamic-Q, via numerical simulation using the proposed simplified models. The importance of correctly scaling these simplified models is emphasised. The models are validated against experimental results. The simplified vehicle models exhibit significantly less numerical noise than the full vehicle simulation model, and solve in significantly less computational time.     

Optimisation of road vehicle passive suspension systems. Part 2. Qualification and case study

As an aid during the concept design phase, the two-dimensional vehicle simulation programme Vehsim2d has been developed (see part 1 of this paper for the vehicle model). The leap-frog optimisation algorithm for constrained problems (LFOPC) has been linked to the multi-body dynamics simulation code (Vehsim2d) to enable the computationally economic optimisation of certain vehicle and suspension design variables. This paper describes the simulation programme, the qualification of the programme, and gives an example of the application of the Vehsim2d/LFOPC system. In particular it is used to optimise the damper characteristics of an existing 22 ton three axle vehicle, over a typical terrain and at a representative speed. By using this system the optimised damper characteristics with respect to ride comfort for the vehicle are computed. The optimum damper characteristics give a 28.5% improvement in the ride comfort of the vehicle over the specified terrain and prescribed speed. Further optimisation runs were performed considering other terrain and different speed values. From these results final damper characteristics for the vehicle are proposed. Using the proposed characteristics, simulations were performed with the more advanced and proven DADS programme. The results show that the damper suggested by the optimisation study is indeed likely to improve the suspension of the vehicle. This study proves that the Vehsim2d/LFOPC vehicle modelling and optimisation system is indeed a valuable tool for a vehicle design team.     

Study on ride comfort of tractor with tandem suspension based on multi-body system dynamics

The aim of the paper is to report a systematic methodology which is used to evaluate and improve the ride comfort. An accurate model is necessary for further investigation and optimization. The vehicle dynamics model of tractor with tandem suspension is modeled and simulated in dynamics software ADAMS, which is redeveloped to add a function of automatic parametric modeling and simulation. The modeling methods of nonlinear characteristic components and various road excitation inputs, which can be simply seen as the implementation means for the model solution, are introduced. A new index called annoyance rate is presented to indicate the quantitative correlation between objective method and subjective comment. The quantitative correlation between them, which is quite different from the qualitative “comfortable” or “uncomfortable” results attained by objective evaluation, can be defined by function and regarded as a basis to scientifically evaluate and improve the ride comfort. According to the request of performance-based design, the parameter sensitive analysis and structure optimization have been carried out to find the trade-off among ride comfort, maneuverability and safety. The approach has proved to be very effective for predicting and improving the ride comfort by experiment results. The methodology can be also used for any other specific category of vehicle.     

Numerical optimisation of process parameters for combined quasi-static and impulse forming

Mathematical optimisation of technological forming processes requires expensive simulations to evaluate objective function and constraint values as well as their derivative and Hessian informations. Therefore numerical linearisation methods like the finite difference method or the BFGS-update are necessary. In this work the effects of these approximation techniques are studied. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Optimisation of road vehicle passive suspension systems. Part 1. Optimisation algorithm and vehicle model

Numerous problems have in the past been experienced during the development of military vehicle suspension systems. In order to solve some of these problems a two-dimensional multi-body vehicle dynamics simulation model has been developed for computer implementation. This model is linked to a mathematical optimisation algorithm in order to enable the optimisation of vehicle design parameters through the minimisation of a well defined objective function. In part 1 of this paper the concept of multi-disciplinary design optimisation is discussed. This is followed by the presentation of the up to six degrees of freedom vehicle model developed for this study, and a discussion of the specific gradient-based optimisation algorithm selected for the optimisation. In particular the derivation of the set of second-order differential equations, describing the acceleration of the different solid bodies of the vehicle model, is presented. In order to perform the optimisation of the non-linear suspension component characteristics, a six piece-wise continuous and linear approximation is used which is also described in this paper. Part 2 of this study will outline the simulation programme and the qualification of the programme. It will also present a typical case study where the proposed optimisation methodology is applied to improve the damper characteristics of a specific vehicle.     

Optimal design of a hoist structure frame

In an attempt to find the most cost effective design of a multipurpose hoisting device that can be easily mounted on and removed from a regular farm vehicle, cost optimisation including both material and manufacturing expenditure, is performed on the main frame supporting the device. The optimisation is constrained by local and global buckling and fatigue conditions. Implementation of Snyman’s gradient-based LFOPC optimisation algorithm to the continuous optimisation problem, results in the economic determination of an unambiguous continuous solution, which is then utilised as the starting point for a neighbourhood search within the discrete set of profiles available, to attain the discrete optimum.

This optimum is further investigated for a different steel grade and for the manufacturing and material cost pertaining to different countries. The effect of variations in the formulation of the objective function for optimisation is also investigated. The results indicate that considerable cost benefits can be obtained by optimisation, that costing in different countries do not necessarily result in the same most cost effective design, and that accurate formulation of the objective function, i.e. realistic mathematical modelling, is of utmost importance in obtaining the intended design optimum.     

Analysis and Approximation of a Stochastic Growth Model with Extinction

We consider a stochastic growth model for which extinction eventually occurs almost surely. The associated complete Fokker–Planck equation describing the law of the process is established and studied. This equation combines a PDE and an ODE, connected one to each other. We then design a finite differences numerical scheme under a probabilistic viewpoint. The model and its approximation are evaluated through numerical simulations.     

On the influence of design parameters and nonlinearities in vehicle suspensions on road deformation

Among others, two main objectives of modern vehicle design are road friendliness and ride comfort. Both aspects are strongly related since the dynamical tire forces depend on the vertical acceleration of the vehicle. In order to investigate the influence of design and operation parameters, different car models are considered which move with constant velocity on a rippled road. First, a linear half car model is examined and the influence of different design parameters is discussed. Second, nonlinear suspensions with Coulomb friction due to sealings as well as with bilinear shock absorbers are taken into account. The vertical dynamics of the vehicle model and the dynamic tire forces between vehicle and road are calculated using analytical methods. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Vehicle dynamics simulations with coupled multibody and finite element models

With the advent of multibody system simulations (MSS) programs, it has become common practice to use computer modeling to evaluate vehicle dynamics performance. This approach has proved to be very effective for predicting the handling performance of vehicles; however, it has proved less successful for predicting the vehicle response at frequencies that are of interest in ride harshness and durability applications. The lack of correlation between theory and experiment can be partially traced back to tire models that are inadequate for rough road simulation. This paper presents a comprehensive vehicle dynamics model for simulating the dynamic response of ground vehicles on rough surfaces. This approach uses a MSS program to simulate the vehicle and a nonlinear FE program for the tires. Parallel processing of the tire models improves the efficiency of the overall simulation. Applications for this technology include vehicle ride and harshness analysis and durability loads simulation. This paper describes the MSS vehicle model, the tire FE model, and the interface which transfers data between the two simulations. Simulation and experiment results for a single tire without a vehicle encountering an obstacle and for a vehicle with four tires driving across a pot hole are presented. Conclusions and opportunities for further research end the paper.     

Fuzzy multi-objective optimization of passive suspension parameters

The paper proposed a systematic and effective optimization process to optimize a 3-D vehicle suspension dynamic model with eight DOF, including seat vertical motion, suspension vertical, pitching and rolling motions and wheels vertical motions using fuzzy optimization, to attain the best compromise between ride comfort and vehicle-generated road damage. The results show a substantial improvement in the vertical ride quality is obtained while keeping the suspension deflections within their allowable clearance when the vehicle moves at a constant velocity v = 20m/s, and the comfort performance of a suspension seat can be considerably enhanced.     

Optimum design of “road-friendly” vehicle suspension systems subjected to rough pavement surfaces

This paper presents an optimum concept to design “road-friendly” vehicles with the recognition of pavement loads as a primary objective function of vehicle suspension design. A walking-beam suspension system is used as an illustrative example of vehicle model to demonstrate the concept and process of optimization. The hypothesis of isotropy is applied to the measured one-dimensional road profile so that a two-dimensional random field model of pavement surface roughness can be achieved. Dynamic response of the walking-beam suspension system is obtained by means of stochastic process theory. Three commonly used objective of suspension optimum design, including ride quality, suspension stroke, and road adhesion, are briefly reviewed. The minimization of the probability of peak value of the tire load exceeding a given value is proposed as an objective function. Using the direct update method, optimization is carried out when tire loads is taken as the objective function of suspension design. The results show that tires with high air pressure and suspension systems with small damping will lead to large tire loads. The concept proposed in this paper is applicable to generic cases, where more complex vehicle model and pavement surface condition apply.     

A multiobjective metaheuristic for a mean-risk static stochastic knapsack problem

In this paper we address two major challenges presented by stochastic discrete optimisation problems: the multiobjective nature of the problems, once risk aversion is incorporated, and the frequent difficulties in computing exactly, or even approximately, the objective function. The latter has often been handled with methods involving sample average approximation, where a random sample is generated so that population parameters may be estimated from sample statistics—usually the expected value is estimated from the sample average. We propose the use of multiobjective metaheuristics to deal with these difficulties, and apply a multiobjective local search metaheuristic to both exact and sample approximation versions of a mean-risk static stochastic knapsack problem. Variance and conditional value-at-risk are considered as risk measures. Results of a computational study are presented, that indicate the approach is capable of producing high-quality approximations to the efficient sets, with a modest computational effort.     

Finite element simulation of a layout optimisation technique by photoelastic stress minimisation

Layout optimisation to minimise maximum Tresca stress by photoelastic stress minimisation technique is simulated by finite element method: elements in the design domain that are lowly stressed are slowly removed resulting in a structure having minimum Tresca stress. The FEM simulation consists of analysing-monitoring the Tresca stress of elements in the design domain and “removing” material by declaring the element stiffness matrix of those possessing small stress values as of negligible stiffness in the subsequent step of the optimisation process. The lower bounds and upper bounds of stress limits for the “removal” criterion have to be appropriately chosen and effects of sharp notches introduced by removing finite elements should be properly taken into account for successful optimisation. The FEM simulation can be made fully automatic and can be extended to cases of complex geometry, loading material properties as well as to other objective functions of the optimisation problem.     

Acoustic simulations with higher order finite and infinite elements

The efficiency of finite element based simulations of Helmholtz problems is primarily affected by two facts. First, the numerical solution suffers from the so-called pollution effect, which leads to very high element resolutions at higher frequencies. Furthermore, the spectral properties of the resulting system matrices, and hence the convergence of iterative solvers, deteriorate with increasing wave numbers. In this contribution the influence of different types of polynomial basis functions on the efficiency and stability of interior as well as exterior acoustic simulations is analyzed. The current investigations show that a proper choice for the polynomial shape approximation may significantly increase the performance of Krylov subspace methods. In particular, the efficiency of higher order finite and infinite elements based on Bernstein polynomial shape approximation and the corresponding iterative solution strategies is assessed for practically relevant numerical examples including the sound radiation from rolling vehicle tires. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

An objective space cut and bound algorithm for convex multiplicative programmes

Multiplicative programming problems are global optimisation problems known to be NP-hard. In this paper we propose an objective space cut and bound algorithm for approximately solving convex multiplicative programming problems. This method is based on an objective space approximation algorithm for convex multi-objective programming problems. We show that this multi-objective optimisation algorithm can be changed into a cut and bound algorithm to solve convex multiplicative programming problems. We use an illustrative example to demonstrate the working of the algorithm. Computational experiments illustrate the superior performance of our algorithm compared to other methods from the literature.     

Knowledge Extraction from Aerodynamic Design Data and its Application to 3D Turbine Blade Geometries

Applying numerical optimisation methods in the field of aerodynamic design optimisation normally leads to a huge amount of heterogeneous design data. While most often only the most promising results are investigated and used to drive further optimisations, general methods for investigating the entire design dataset are rare. We propose methods that allow the extraction of comprehensible knowledge from aerodynamic design data represented by discrete unstructured surface meshes. The knowledge is prepared in a way that is usable for guiding further computational as well as manual design and optimisation processes. A displacement measure is suggested in order to investigate local differences between designs. This measure provides information on the amount and direction of surface modifications. Using the displacement data in conjunction with statistical methods or data mining techniques provides meaningful knowledge from the dataset at hand. The theoretical concepts have been applied to a data set of 3D turbine stator blade geometries. The results have been verified by means of modifying the turbine blade geometry using direct manipulation of free form deformation (DMFFD) techniques. The performance of the deformed blade design has been calculated by running computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations. It is shown that the suggested framework provides reasonable results which can directly be transformed into design modifications in order to guide the design process.     

Spline approximation,Kronecker products and multilinear forms

Sums of Kronecker products occur naturally in high‐dimensional spline approximation problems, which arise, for example, in the numerical treatment of chemical reactions. In full matrix form, the resulting non‐sparse linear problems usually exceed the memory capacity of workstations. We present methods for the manipulation and numerical handling of Kronecker products in factorized form. Moreover, we analyze the problem of approximating a given matrix by sums of Kronecker products by making use of the equivalence to the problem of decomposing multilinear forms into sums of one‐forms. Greedy algorithms based on the maximization of multilinear forms over a torus are used to obtain such (finite and infinite) decompositions that can be used to solve the approximation problem. Moreover, we present numerical considerations for these algorithms. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal structural design of a planar parallel platform for machining

Parallel manipulators have many advantages over traditional serial manipulators. These advantages include high accuracy, high stiffness and high load-to-weight ratio, which make parallel manipulators ideal for machining operations where high accuracy is required to meet the requirements that modern standards demand.Recently, the finite element method has been used by some workers to determine the stiffness of spatial manipulators. These models are mainly used to verify stiffness predicted using kinematic equations, and are restricted to relatively simple truss-like models. In this study, state-of-the-art finite elements are used to determine the out of plane stiffness for parallel manipulators. Euler–Bernoulli beam elements and flat shell elements with drilling degrees of freedom are used to model the platform assembly.The main objective of this study is to quantify the stiffness, particularly the out of plane stiffness, of a planar parallel platform to be used for machining operations. The aim is to obtain a design that is able to carry out machining operations to an accuracy of 10 μm for a given tool force.Reducing the weight of a parallel manipulator used in machining applications has many advantages, e.g. increased maneuverability, resulting in faster material removal rates. Therefore the resulting proposed design is optimized with respect to weight, subject to displacement and stress constraints to ensure feasible stiffness and structural integrity. The optimization is carried out by means of two gradient-based methods, namely LFOPC and Dynamic-Q.     

Influence of Internal Actuator Properties of Active Anti-Roll Systems on the Vehicle Driving Behaviour

The application process of active anti-roll systems can be supported by the implementation of numerical optimization routines. The optimization objectives evaluate the handling and comfort vehicle behaviour and are calculated online from vehicle measurement variables. A model-based analysis illustrates the influence of the actuator properties on these optimization objectives. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Global and mid-range function approximation for engineering optimization

Global and mid-range approximation concepts are used in engineering optimisation in those cases were the commonly used local approximations are not available or applicable. In this paper the response surface method is discussed as a method to build both global and mid-range approximations of the objective and constraint functions. In this method analysis results in multiple design points are fitted on a chosen approximation model function by means of regression techniques. Especially global approximations rely heavily on appropriate choices of the model functions. This builds a serious bottleneck in applying the method. In mid-range approximations the model selection is much less critical. The response surface method is illustrated at two relatively simple design problems. For building global approximations a new method was developed by Sacks and co-workers, especially regarding the nature of computer experiments. Here, the analysis results in the design sites are exactly predicted, and model selection is more flexible compared to the response surface method. The method will be applied to an analytical test function and a simple design problem. Finally the methods are discussed and compared.