Vehicle suspension based on torsion bar and elastic hinge

Abstract

The article is devoted to the development of a vehicle suspension with a nonlinear characteristic based on a torsion bar and an elastic hinge with a given characteristic on the example of tracked vehicles for constructing oil and gas pipelines. The characteristic of the elastic hinge is such that when the existing torsion bar suspension and the elastic hinge are connected in parallel, the desired characteristic is obtained. For this non-linear characteristic in the static displacement region, low stiffness was obtained, but the total stored energy at the maximum deflection of the balance bar of the resulting suspension is greater than that of existing torsion suspensions. The smoothness of the tracked vehicles with a low stiffness of the suspension increases significantly. The calculation of vibrations of the proposed suspension under kinematic excitation was carried out. A harmonic function is considered as the trajectory of the profile; a function corresponding to a single obstacle and a function corresponding to an ascent to a ledge of a given height. The elastic hinge is a pneumatic spring moving between the guides of the design form. The force characteristic of the hinge depends on the shape of the guides and on the pressure in the air spring. The calculation of the circular shapes of the guides of the elastic hinge is given. The values of the forces arising between the pneumatic spring and the guides are determined.