Simulated a lunar rover suspension with linear and nonlinear springs and dampers using RK4, then found safe operating frequencies with transmissibility analysis.

Simulated and analyzed a lunar rover suspension as a mass-spring-damper system with linear and nonlinear components, solving coupled second-order differential equations for displacement, velocity, and force over time with the 4th-order Runge-Kutta method.

What I did

• Modeling: wrote function handles for linear and nonlinear spring and damper models and built them into a full simulation.
• Convergence: designed a dynamic timestep adjustment to hold accuracy while saving computation, with error metrics to confirm tolerance.
• Frequency response: computed displacement and force transmissibility versus frequency to find safe operating ranges, using golden-section search to locate the damped natural frequency.
• Reporting: produced clear plots of displacement and force amplitude versus frequency.

Result

Identified the frequency ranges where the suspension operates safely in the lunar environment.