Ride quality evaluation of a vehicle with a planar suspension system

Abstract

The longitudinal connection between a chassis and a wheel in a conventional vehicle suspension system is commonly very stiff than the vertical connection. Such a mechanism can efficiently isolate vibrations and absorb shocks in the vertical direction but cannot sufficiently attenuate the impact in the longitudinal direction. In order to overcome such a limitation, a planar suspension system (PSS) with spring–damper struts in both the longitudinal and vertical directions is proposed so that the vibration along any direction in the wheel rotation plane can be isolated. In this paper, the dynamic responses of a vehicle with PSS due to a single bump and random road unevenness are investigated. The ride quality of the vehicle with PSS is evaluated in accordance with ISO 2631. A comparison with that of a similar conventional vehicle is conducted to demonstrate the promising potentials of the PSS in improving the vehicle ride quality.

Keywords:

• ride evaluation
• vehicle dynamics
• Average Lumped LuGre tyre friction model
• planar suspension system

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Natural Sciences and Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Ontario Government, and previous participation and support of Mindmatter Innovates Inc. and Cooper Standard Automotive in an Ontario Centers of Excellence (OCE) project.