The influence of suspension springs and vibration dampers on the smoothness of the vehicle motion

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a significant development in the suspension systems used in motor vehicles, due to the important role they play in absorbing and damping vibrations. The main objective of this research is to study the effect of suspension springs and vibration dampers on the smoothness of motion of the vehicle in particular, and to analyze the performance of the suspension system in general.

In this work,  the modern scientific  methods were applied, which include modeling and simulation operations using the state space method and Matlab-2018 program on the one hand, and modeling and simulation operations using Simulink program on the other hand. In addition to using the famous program Excel.

The results of the research showed that in order to obtain the  optimal solutions for reducing the harmful effects of the dynamic forces, and vibrations generated when the car is moving on uneven roads, the following should be adopted: 1 - the average stiffness of the suspension spring must be in the range ( 10-20 )% of the stiffness of the wheel tire, 2 - the allowed damping intensity λ for passenger cars must be in the range (0.3-0.6)) in order to avoid the risk of resonance. The results of the research also showed the natural frequencies and specifications of the vibration of the vehicle body for two different study cases, one of which is a passenger car and the other is a truck. For future studies, work should be done to develop the dynamic model of the suspension system, which leads to an increase in riding comfort.