Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ScienceDirect
Procedia Structural Integrity 37 (2022) 73–80

ICSI 2021 The 4th International Conference on Structural Integrity

Numerical and Theoretical Modal Analysis of Transit Buses

Rogério Lopes*, Behzad V. Farahani, Francisco Q. de Melo, Nuno V. Ramos, Pedro M.
G. P. Moreira
INEGI, Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Campus da FEUP, R. Dr. Roberto Frias 400,
4200-465 Porto, Portugal.

Abstract

This work aims to study the dynamic behaviour of a passenger bus. The transportation sector demands high important technological
improvements, strived for high safety standards and environmental sustainability. In this work, a simplified dynamic model of a
single body bus is introduced to determine the natural frequencies spectrum variation, mainly caused by the induction of the flexible
behaviour of the suspension and unforeseen external loads, particularly wind gusts. More complex vibrational modes have been
studied via Finite Element Method (FEM) modelling. A significantly simplified link arrangement is presented, which models the
behaviour between the road and tire contact as well as the suspension features. This deformation model leads to a combined stiffness
matrix with the whole model. As a result, an acceptable agreement was obtained amongst the numerical and analytical solutions.
©
© 2022
2022The TheAuthors.
Authors.Published by Elsevier
Published B.V.
by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of Pedro Miguel Guimaraes Pires Moreira
Peer-review under responsibility of Pedro Miguel Guimaraes Pires Moreira
Keywords: Type your keywords here, separated by semicolons ;

1. Introduction

Modernization largely depends on the citizens’ mobility, being an incentive for professional activities when
developed under sustainable platforms (Miller et al. 2016). The majority of worldwide city halls’ coordination staff
encourages people to use public transportation instead of private vehicles. One detail, possibly not noticed by the
majority of people, is that a bus fleet running in an active urban environment lends to the city aesthetics look an
attractive complement, not only for a successful design but for also when the shiny lateral bus wall reflects the city
profile, working as a mobile urbanistic icon. However, buses transport people, hence exigent safety and comfort
attributes for a health and safe transportation must be inherent to the bus body design (Göhlich et al. 2018). Given the
time dependent load system applied to the bus body, it is imperative to check the structural integrity for its dynamic
behavior upon transient loads, starting by evaluating the natural frequencies and corresponding associate natural

2452-3216 © 2022 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of Pedro Miguel Guimaraes Pires Moreira

2452-3216 © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of Pedro Miguel Guimaraes Pires Moreira
10.1016/j.prostr.2022.01.061
74 Rogério Lopes et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 37 (2022) 73–80
2 R. F. Lopes et al./ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

vibrational modes (Fu and He 2001). Their identification is a very important procedure for a safe and efficient
structural design, both for the bus body strength to dynamic loads and prediction of the structure to residual fatigue
life and, not less important, the passengers’ comfort when the vehicle is subjected to dynamic disturbances. This theme
is unquestionably a constant up-to-date vector of investigation in seeking the excellence of bus body design for the
safety and comfort. Gombor, (Gombor 2005), investigated the modal behavior of a bus body frame type structure for
transient forces applied at the level of suspension resilient block mountings. Georgiou et al., (Georgiou, Badarlis, and
Natsiavas 2008), proposed a combined model to analyze the structural behavior, the lowest natural frequencies, only
dependent of the suspension flexibility, had the bus body modelled as a rigid entity, where its kinematics involved
large displacements and rotations, for frequencies in excess of 𝒇𝒇 = 𝟐𝟐𝟐𝟐 𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯, then the structure was assumed as a flexible
frame, presenting beam type modal displacements and in frequencies exceeding about 𝒇𝒇 = 𝟕𝟕𝟕𝟕 𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯, there was a
prominence of local bending modes of truss/beam members of the body frame, which non-linear behavior was due to
axial force effects. This paper constitutes a further study of Lopes’s study (Lopes et al. 2021), in which they presents
a study on a dynamic behavior of a bus length 𝑳𝑳 = 𝟏𝟏𝟏𝟏 𝒎𝒎. This bus intends to establish a new sustainable transport
generation, where there are few studies of the dynamic behavior mainly focusing on the modal analysis. This paper
will take advantage of previous analytical methods and further numerical results are determined in order to purpose a
final summary.

1.1. Model definition of the bus

In this work, a 12 − 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑟𝑟 bus is studied, (Solaris). Fig. 1 demonstrates an overview of the vehicle´s geometry
with its dimensions. A summary of the bus characteristics is reported in Table 1. It must be stated that the bus is
considered as a block, in which the several components such as seats, glass, engine components amongst others are
incorporated through equivalent mechanical characteristics. More details can be found in the previously published
work, (Lopes et al. 2021).

Fig. 1. An overview on the geometrical dimensions of the studied bus, values are in mm.

Table 1. Characteristics of the studied bus.

Bus main dimensions Battery pack

Length 12.0(𝑚𝑚) 2.67(𝑚𝑚)
Width 2.7(𝑚𝑚) 1.72(𝑚𝑚)
Height 3.0(𝑚𝑚) 0.33(𝑚𝑚)
Weight 10.5(𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡) 3.50(𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡)
Distance between axles 5.9(𝑚𝑚) -
Suspension system
Air spring stiffness 4.2 × 105 (N/m)
Damping coefficient 4.0 × 105 (Ns/m)

1.2. Analytical model

The simplified modal analysis demands a realistically designed dynamic model working as a multibody interaction.
More relevant vehicle body displacements are derived by the elastic behavior of the suspension interacting with road
irregularities or maneuvers by driving. It includes three axes translations (over 𝑥𝑥, 𝑦𝑦, 𝑧𝑧 main inertial symmetry axes),
 Rogério Lopes et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 37 (2022) 73–80 75
R. F. Lopes et al./ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 3

as a result of longitudinal axis (𝑥𝑥 , for example), lateral (side “drift”) over 𝑦𝑦, and vertical (up-down) over 𝑧𝑧; three axes
rotations; “Roll” (over 𝑥𝑥 ), due to curve lateral forces, “dive/rise” (over 𝑦𝑦), due to road irregularities, and “yaw” (over
𝑧𝑧) due to steering maneuvers, with oscillation eventually aggravated by running with underinflated tires. The on-run
vehicle/road interaction is performed by the vehicle suspension, a system consisting of an assembled set of control
arms, trailing bars, springs and dampers. Regarding the vehicle body, this is a highly complex structure. In this study,
the 3D stiffness parameters of the entire vehicle body are globalized which focusing only its effect on the mechanical
links with the road, that are the axes and tires at the road contact points. To evaluate the stiffness matrix factors, a
procedure related with the prescription of unitary displacements at the suspension system DOF’s level is described
next with complement of details depicted in Fig. 3.
In order to achieve the stiffness factor for the global body structure of the vehicle, it is required to evaluate forces
at supports - wheel hubs (reactions to body via suspension arms and axes) and to obtain displacements at vehicle mid
length and relative rotations between axes. Regarding the equivalent vehicle mass and dynamical inertia parameters,
these factors are assessed considering the vehicle body as a solid owning an equivalent density calculated by the global
mass/volume (as a solid) ratio. Further calculations of low order natural frequencies can be done through these
simplifications with the uniform distributed load (passengers and structural members). Nevertheless, the considered
mathematical developments are extensively described in (Lopes et al. 2021).

𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤ℎ𝑡𝑡 384𝐸𝐸𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 𝐼𝐼
𝐾𝐾 =
𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙ℎ 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
=
5𝐿𝐿4
(1)
Considering a set of three axes involving the tire geometry as shown in Fig. 2.a), there are three leading forces at the
tire/ground contact surface:

̅̅̅̅̅
Radial stiffness (𝑧𝑧 − 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑): 𝐾𝐾𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 = 𝑝𝑝𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴
𝛿𝛿
×𝑏𝑏
(2)
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅
̅̅̅̅ ×𝑏𝑏
𝑝𝑝𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴
Longitudinal stiffness (𝑥𝑥 − 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑) = lateral or shear stiffness (𝑦𝑦 − 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑): 𝐾𝐾𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 = 0.5
𝐻𝐻 (3)

a) In-plane oscillation
In the Yaw rotation, an important detail must be taken into account when vehicle is parked, where the handbrake
can be applied or not. If the first option holds, then due to constraints at each wheel, there are three equivalent
{𝑥𝑥, 𝑦𝑦, 𝑧𝑧}8 spring stiffness. Otherwise, if the wheels keep released (handbrake not applied), Yaw rotation only depends
of the tire shear (or lateral) stiffness. The motion and the frequency value of the vibration modes are presented in Fig.
2.b) and Eq. (4), respectively.

𝑓𝑓4 = 0.984 𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻 (4)

a) b)

Fig. 2. a) Simplified model of the wheel and its acting forces and b) an example of yaw motion.
76
4 Rogério
R. F. Lopes Lopes
et al./ et al. / Integrity
Structural Procedia Procedia
Structural00
Integrity
(2019) 37 (2022) 73–80
000–000

b) Lateral (drift) oscillation

Respecting the lateral, drift, oscillation, it may involve lateral translation and/or roll rotation, about the longitudinal
vehicle’s axis. The presented model is a kind of 2-DOF, in which the motions and masses are distributed at the axes
and roof levels, respectively. It can be a suitable model to explain the lateral and roll vibrational modes. Suspension
stiffness is now exclusively due to drift or shear mode with tire deformation. In this figure, the vertical springs
represent the radial stiffness of the vehicle tires when contacting the track, while the horizontal springs are associated
to the lateral (or shear) stiffness of the tires, as result of the dynamic effect of the centripetal acceleration (when the
vehicle takes a curve), or as result of lateral forces due for example, to side wind gusts.
The setup of the stiffness matrix for the force/displacement relation due to transverse displacements only, the
process described next is known as the “Direct Stiffness Method”, where the procedure is summarized as follows:
when the chassis midpoint labelled as “2” is horizontally blocked, as shown in the Fig. 3-b) and a unitary transverse
displacement is prescribed at the vehicle roof midpoint, the necessary force to achieve this deformation body frame at
the level of DOF “1” is 𝐾𝐾11 . Due to the prescribed displacement here mentioned, an internal reaction of the structure
at the level of DOF “2” is identified as 𝐾𝐾12 . Conversely, in Fig. 3-c), when node “1” is blocked and a unitary transverse
displacement is prescribed the level of node “2” (chassis midpoint), we obtain at node “1” the internal reaction 𝐾𝐾21 =
𝐾𝐾12 (for the principle of reciprocity of forces in any structure) and force 𝐾𝐾22 at node 2. It is important to remind that,
in this last case, the reaction force by prescription of a unitary displacement at “2” is due to a joint reaction by radial
deformation of the tires (generating a moment counteracting the transverse force at node “1”) but also to the shear
reaction of the tires by transverse deformation at the soil level, as graphically suggested in figure above by the spring
model deformation. The stiffness parameters are presented in the following equations, Eq. (5) to Eq. (9).

a) b) c)
Fig. 3. a) General overview of the bus, b) effect of horizontal factor ate the roof level and c) effect of the horizotnal factor at the lower level.

2𝐾𝐾 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 (𝐿𝐿⁄2)2 2

𝐾𝐾11 = 2 = 𝐾𝐾 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 (𝑊𝑊⁄𝐻𝐻 ) (5)
𝐻𝐻 2
2
𝐾𝐾22 = 4𝐾𝐾𝐷𝐷 + 𝐾𝐾 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 (𝑊𝑊⁄𝐻𝐻 ) (6)
𝐾𝐾12 = 𝐾𝐾21 = 𝐾𝐾11 (7)
𝐾𝐾11 − 𝑀𝑀11 𝜔𝜔2 𝐾𝐾12
𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 ‖[ ]‖ = 0 (8)
𝐾𝐾21 𝐾𝐾22 − 𝑀𝑀22 𝜔𝜔2

𝑓𝑓1 = 0.530 𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻; 𝑓𝑓5 = 1.800 𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻 (9)

c) Vertical oscillation
In this vibrational mode, it can be assumed that there are two distinct natural modes: the vertical translation and
the transverse rotation. In these natural frequencies, only in serial by the suspension/tire stiffness participate in the
vibration modes. It must be noted that there exist two sets of tire/spring-damper per axis. The 1𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 mode is a rotational
motion similar to a “dive-rise” angular motion, represented in Fig. 4 by the dash-dot-line. With the regard to the 2𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛
mode, this is a vertical translation induced by four equivalent springs and all the bus mass, indicated in Fig. 4 by the
dash line.
 Rogério Lopes et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 37 (2022) 73–80 77
R. F. Lopes et al./ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 5

Fig. 4. Frequency motion of vertical translation and dive-rise.

1 4𝐾𝐾𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 1 𝐾𝐾𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 𝐿𝐿2𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 /2

𝑓𝑓3 = √ = 1,154 𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻; 𝑓𝑓2 = √ 2 = 0,982 𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻 (10)
2𝜋𝜋 𝑀𝑀𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 2𝜋𝜋 𝑀𝑀𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 𝐿𝐿𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙ℎ /12

2. Numerical analysis

So far, the analytical model has been presented, this section devotes to the numerical model. The bus is considered
in the parked mode and the natural frequencies will be achieved considering that the wind hits its side at different
velocities. Considering the status of no wind effects, a comparison is drawn with the analytical model for the validation
purpose. The numerical analysis is performed through Finite Element Method (FEM) formulations simulated in
ABAQUS. Regarding the Finite Element (FE) mesh, a convergence study on different mesh densities (identified as
coarse, medium and fine mesh) was carried out on TET elements and Table 2 presents the number of nodes and
elements. Fig. 5-a) shows the FE mesh with the medium size, the interactions between tires and batteries are
demonstrated in Fig. 5-b). Besides, Fig. 5-c) depicts the front and rear regions where the wind hits. Besides, in order
to represent the batteries and passengers’ weight, an inertial interaction is used.

a) b) c)
Fig. 5. a) FE mesh, TET and medium size, b) FE interactions and connectors and c) FE affected lateral area (red – front and yellow - rear)

Table 2. TET mesh characteristics for different density mesh (coarse, medium and fine).

FE Mesh Coarse Medium Fine

Number of nodes 36812 172142 884167

Number of elements 22657 116291 620547

The numerical analyses were performed and the results have been obtained. Table 3 reports the numerical solutions
on frequencies 𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑖 obtained for 𝑖𝑖 = 1. . .6 for different FE meshes. It is feasible to conclude that there is a faster
stabilization on the results for the coarser mesh. The results were acquired considering that the wind impacts the lateral
side, both at the front and at the rear area at the velocity of 𝑉𝑉 = 50 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘/ℎ. It can be inferred that the natural frequencies
tend to be greater in the case if the wind mainly hits the rear section of the bus.
However, further results will be obtained and presented for the medium FE mesh. Therefore, Fig. 6 shows the
distribution of the displacement amplitude obtained for all natural frequencies in the presence of the wind with the
velocity of 𝑉𝑉 = 50 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘/ℎ at rear area. It must be mentioned that the bus is with null capacity.
Further studies were carried out at different velocities, with full and null bus capacity. Table 4 reports the obtained
results. A closer look to the results, it can be implied that the mass increase plays the greatest contribution in reduction
78
6 Rogério
R. F. Lopes Lopes
et al./ et al. / Integrity
Structural Procedia Procedia
Structural00
Integrity
(2019) 37 (2022) 73–80
000–000

of the natural frequencies. On the other hand, the wind velocity is a factor that directly affects the frequencies led to
reveal a significant raise.

Table 3. Natural frequencies result for TET mesh for rear and front wind pressure when wind hits at 50 (km/h), values are in Hz.

Empty bus
Natural
Frequency
Pressure
Wind

𝑓𝑓1 𝑓𝑓2 𝑓𝑓3 𝑓𝑓4 𝑓𝑓5 𝑓𝑓6

Mesh
Density
Fine 0.50 1.00 1.32 1.34 1.64 3.49
Medium 0.50 1.01 1.34 1.35 1.66 3.51
Front

Coarse 0.50 0.99 1.32 1.35 1.64 3.50

Fine 0.50 1.00 1.32 1.34 1.65 3.49

Rear

Medium 0.51 1.02 1.34 1.35 1.67 3.50

Coarse 0.50 0.99 1.32 1.35 1.65 3.50
Full bus
Fine 0.38 0.84 1.02 1.13 1.23 2.83
Front

Medium 0.39 0.85 1.03 1.15 1.24 2.84

Coarse 0.38 0.83 1.02 1.13 1.23 2.84
Fine 0.41 0.84 1.02 1.13 1.24 2.83
Rear

Medium 0.41 0.86 1.03 1.15 1.25 2.84

Coarse 0.41 0.84 1.03 1.13 1.24 2.84

Table 4. Natural frequencies values in the case if wind hits the bus in different areas at different velocity.

Wind
𝑉𝑉 (𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘⁄ℎ) 𝑓𝑓1 (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) 𝑓𝑓2 (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) 𝑓𝑓3 (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) 𝑓𝑓4 (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) 𝑓𝑓5 (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) 𝑓𝑓6 (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻)
pressure
Null capacity
30 0.48 1.01 1.34 1.35 1.64 3.51
Front 50 0.50 1.01 1.34 1.35 1.66 3.51
90 0.59 1.02 1.34 1.35 1.83 3.51
30 0.48 1.01 1.34 1.35 1.64 3.51
Rear 50 0.51 1.02 1.34 1.35 1.67 3.50
90 0.61 1.02 1.33 1.35 1.88 3.50
30 0.49 1.01 1.34 1.35 1.65 3.50
All 50 0.55 1.02 1.34 1.35 1.74 3.50
90 0.68 1.02 1.33 1.34 2.11 3.50
Full capacity
30 0.31 0.85 1.01 1.15 1.21 2.84
Front 50 0.39 0.85 1.03 1.15 1.24 2.84
90 0.52 0.86 1.05 1.15 1.37 2.85
30 0.32 0.85 1.01 1.15 1.21 2.84
Rear 50 0.41 0.86 1.03 1.15 1.25 2.84
90 0.54 0.86 1.06 1.15 1.42 2.84
30 0.37 0.85 1.02 1.15 1.23 2.84
All 50 0.48 0.86 1.05 1.15 1.31 2.84
90 0.59 0.86 1.05 1.15 1.58 2.84

2.1. Comparison

In this section, a comparison is made amongst the numerical and analytical results. Considering the medium FE
mesh, the bus with the null capacity and no wind affecting the body, Table 5 presents the results obtained for different
natural frequencies with a calculated deviation. It must be noted that there is a greater approximation on the values,
shown by the smallest deviation in the modes where the structure tends to be more rigid. When the deviation tends to
be greater, there is a combination of several vibrational modes, such as torsion and bending, which analytically
becomes difficult to calculate combined modes.
 Rogério Lopes et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 37 (2022) 73–80 79
R. F. Lopes et al./ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 7

Table 5. A comparison between numerical and analytical results

Deviation (%)
𝑓𝑓 𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 𝑓𝑓 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴
Natural frequency
(𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴
|𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑖𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 − 𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑖 |⁄𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑖 × 100
𝑓𝑓1 0.476 0.530 10.189
𝑓𝑓2 1.014 0.982 3.258
𝑓𝑓3 1.340 1.154 16.117
𝑓𝑓4 1.351 1.390 2.805
𝑓𝑓5 1.634 1.800 9.222

a) b)

c) d)

e) f)

Fig. 6. Displacement amplitude distribution (in mm) obtained on: a) 1st, b) 2nd, c) 3rd, d) 4th, e) 5th and f) 6th natural frequency for the wind velocity
of 50 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘/ℎ at rear area, null capacity of the bus.
80
8 Rogério
R. F. Lopes Lopes
et al./ et al. / Integrity
Structural Procedia Procedia
Structural00
Integrity
(2019) 37 (2022) 73–80
000–000

3. Conclusions

In this work, a simplified model of a passenger bus was implemented and studied to obtain the natural modes of
vibration. An analytical model was deployed, in which the vehicle body was practically assumed rigid and only the
suspension system contributed for the dynamic behavior of the whole structure. An equivalent model to characterize
suspension system was taken into account where the equivalent stiffness tire elastic properties were used. The main
relevant natural frequencies were obtained via a set of developed mathematical equations presented in a simplified
format. The suspension behavior was included in order to assess a couple of motions provided by suspension
flexibility. The analytical procedure allowed the determination of singular movements (when there was no combined
movements) and tire deformation and radial loads were also included.
Numerically, the model was solved using Finite Element Method (FEM) formulations considering passengers´
mass and the wind pressure as exterior loads. The FEM models were solved for different FE meshes. As a results, the
mass increase induced the frequencies decreasing tendency. The opposite behavior took place when unexpected wind
impacted the bus laterally that coinciding with other frequencies could induce the movement amplification.
Regarding the comparison between numerical and analytical solutions, an acceptable agreement was verified
between the analytical and numerical results, namely in the cases of uniform lateral rotation “roll” or, “yaw” vertical
axis rotation mode. In the case of translation modes, as purely vertical oscillation mode, a reasonable verification was
thereby obtained.
In all cases, the effect of damping on natural frequencies was neglected. This is a realistic option for sake of
conservative solutions for suspension systems. At higher frequencies, the FEM model is more realistic since there are
combined modes. The analytical method sounds to be efficient when lower frequencies is being studied. The results
of the present study can be applicable in the modal analysis in transportation sectors.

Acknowledgements

Authors gratefully acknowledge the funding of Project POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039711- CRASH – Novas

soluções tecnológicas de segurança passiva para autocarros, cofinanced by União Europeia, through Fundo Europeu
de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER). Behzad V. Farahani sincerely acknowledges the funding received from
Ministério da Educação e Ciência, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal), under grant PTDC/EME-
EME/29339/2017.

References

Fu, Zhi-Fang, and Jimin He. 2001. Modal analysis: Elsevier.

Georgiou, G., A. Badarlis, and S. Natsiavas. 2008. "Modelling and ride dynamics of a flexible multi-body model of an urban bus." Proceedings of
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-body Dynamics 222 (2):143-154. doi: 10.1243/14644193JMBD130.
Göhlich, Dietmar, Tu-Anh Fay, Dominic Jefferies, Enrico Lauth, Alexander Kunith, and Xudong Zhang. 2018. "Design of urban electric bus
systems." Design Science 4:e15. doi: 10.1017/dsj.2018.10.
Gombor, Balázs. 2005. "Dynamic analysis of a bus body frame: determination of the loads and stresses." Vehicle System Dynamics 43 (11):807-
822. doi: 10.1080/00423110500273400.
Lopes, Rogério, Behzad V. Farahani, Francisco Q. de Melo, Nuno V. Ramos, and Pedro M. G. P. Moreira. 2021. "Dynamic Modal Analysis of a
Passenger Bus: Theoretical and Numerical Studies." Transportation Research Record:03611981211028863. doi:
10.1177/03611981211028863.
Miller, Patrick, Alexandre G. de Barros, Lina Kattan, and S. C. Wirasinghe. 2016. "Public transportation and sustainability: A review." KSCE
Journal of Civil Engineering 20 (3):1076-1083. doi: 10.1007/s12205-016-0705-0.
Solaris, The CAF Group company. "ZERO EMISSIONS POWERTRAINS." Solaris Bus & Coach sp. z o.o., Product catalogue 2020/2021.