Optimization of a land vehicle suspension subjected to a buried charge explosion

Abstract

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) represent a serious threat to vehicles. These IEDs can partially or fully damage the vehicle and the onboard equipment and, threaten the lives of its crew. To protect against these devices, modifications to specialized vehicles are made in different parts. Among these latter, the present work focuses on the effects of the suspension system on the dynamic response of the vehicle. The behaviour of a McPherson suspension system of a light vehicle is numerically studied in order to optimize the dimensions of selected components. Three models based on different approaches are developed. The first is based on an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulation with fluid-structure coupling, which gives a more realistic representation of the blast phenomena. However, it needs significant calculation time and computational power. The second is a simplified, purely Lagrangian, model which requires less computational resources but includes several assumptions. The third model is based on a meta-modelling approach. This latter is used to optimize the dimensions of selected sub-systems of the vehicle suspension via a genetic optimization algorithm.