D. Vilela and E.H. Tamai (Brazil)
vehicle dynamics, suspension, optimization, ride comfort, simulation.
Traditional suspension tuning for ride comfort takes use of a series of physical prototype evaluations by skilled drivers, who analyze the vehicle performance in subjective terms. In this approach, the suspension components (springs, shock absorbers, bumpers, etc) are usually opti mized one at a time, regardless of the consequences of the interactions among them in the global suspension behavior this not uncommonly leads to sub optimized suspension configurations. Another problem with this approach is the fact that it is completely dependent upon physical compo nent prototypes, whose costs and construction lead times can not be afforded in the current tight development cy cles. Finally, this approach is subjected to uncertainties due to its subjective nature even with extremely skilled drivers, it is not possible to assure that their evaluation is completely absent of influences other than the suspension configuration being put at test. This paper presents an ob jective approach, based on simulation tools, whose target is to define optimized components for the suspension without the need of physical prototypes. It takes use of a vehicle dynamics simulation tool, used to analyze the ve hicle behavior in different road conditions for the parame ters of interest and an optimization tool based on the ro bust engineering method.
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