PERIODIC STEADY STATE RESPONSE OF A LARGE SCALE CITY BUS MODEL WITH NONLINEAR CHARACTERISTICS

A computationally efficient methodology is presented for capturing periodic steady state respo nse of a periodically excited city bus model. First, th e equations of motion for each of the components of t he bus are set up by applying the finite element metho d. As a consequence of the geometric complexity, the number of the resulting equations is quite high. In addition, the composite model possesses strongly nonlinear characteristics. Therefore, a suitable me thod is applied originally in order to reduce the dimens ion of the system. This then allows the application of appropriate numerical methodologies for predicting steady state response of the nonlinear models examined to periodic road excitation. As a result, selected response quantities are evaluated and presented for characteristic combinations of the bu s suspension stiffness and damping parameters.