Study of Horizontal Impact Forces Arising from Terrain on Off-Road Vehicles and Minimizing Their Effects on Ride Quality

Vehicles with off-road capabilities in the present times have begun to focus more on ride comfort. One of the most common uses of such vehicles is to help commuters travel on rough terrain, away from paved roads. Vertical suspensions carry out the work of minimizing the impact from objects like rocks and stones that comprise the terrain. However, such undulations in the terrain are not just vertically bulged. The geometry of the object, i.e., the rock/stone and the wheel coming in contact with the object gives rise to the familiar vertical impact forces for which vertical suspensions are provided. The other component of the impact force arising from the same irregular geometry of the undulation, i.e., the horizontal component of impact force which acts parallel to the axle of the wheels remains neglected. This might lead to passengers experiencing sideways swaying while inside the vehicle, even if there are independent vertical suspensions. In this paper, a study of the effects of horizontal component of impact forces on off-road vehicles was done and after that, spring-shock absorber arrangements to counter these forces were analyzed with springs of different spring-stiffness values.