Simple Spring Damper Design

[C98hris]

Hi,

I am looking at designing a simple spring damper system for a small transporting wagon/trolley and I would like to calculate what spring and damper coefficients are needed to give the best ride (i.e. minimal disturbance of the load carried by the wagon). However I am struggling to find how the best way to approach this as I'm fairly new to spring damper systems.

The wagon will have a mass of approximately 20kg and will take a maximum load of 50kg. I was looking at two scenarios to optimism the suspension for:

1. a sudden drop or step of 5cm.

2. a continually undulating surface which I wanted to simulate as a Sin wave with an amplitude of 3cm and wavelength of 10cm.

I am expecting the maximum speed someone will pull the wagon will be 5kph. The wagon will have four wheels but there may also be a two wheel design and I'd like to simulate both options.

I realize this is probably a very simple problem, but I just can't figure out how to get started. I'll really appreciate any help.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[GregLocock]

set up your wheels as a cam follower on the road surface, then use Newton and your sdof suspension model to determine the accelerations on the wagon itself.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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