International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 Vol. 3 Issue 6, June - 2014 Design of Trailing Arm Suspension Santosh Ukamnal Kiran Chaudhary P G Scholar, Automotive Engineering P G Scholar, Automotive Engineering VIT University, Vellore, India-632014 VIT University, Vellore, India-632014 P. Baskar Sagar Olekar Assistant Professor, P G Scholar, Automotive Engineering School of Mechanical and Building Sciences VIT University, Vellore, India-632014 VIT University, Vellore, India-632014 Abstract— Suspension is a term given to the system of spring, To provide stability to vehicle during pitching or damper and linkages that connect wheel to vehicle body which rolling, while in motion. allows relative motion, maintains contact between wheel and road and also damps out road shocks. Suspension system aims to Spring and damper are most widely used element in improve the ride comfort, handling and safety. Now a day’s most vehicle. Spring reduces the force transmitted to the chassis of the passenger cars use independent suspension system which while travelling over bump reduces the acceleration of the allows wheel to relative to frame without affecting other wheels. chassis while wheel falls on a depression or pothole. Damper Most commonly used rear suspension is trailing arm suspension reduces the tendency of the chassis to bounce up and down system. after the disturbance and also prevents the excessive built up of amplitude of bounce when the excitation frequency is nearer to This paper deals with mathematical modelling of a quarter the natural frequency the system. car trailing arm suspension system. The quarter car model of two degree freedom system is solved in MATLAB and time response Suspension system is classified into passive, active, semi- is plotted. The parameters such as spring stiffness, damping ratio active system. Passive suspension system satisfies the of sprung and un-sprung masses of the quarter car model are requirements only at certain operating condition. Hard optimized to get good comfort and vehicle handling. Design of the springing will increase acceleration force during light loading suspension geometry is carried out in CAD software. The and soft springing will reduce the body height when heavily optimized values of spring stiffness, damping coefficientIJERT ofIJERT loaded. Active suspension controls the vertical movement of sprung and un-sprung masses are coupled with the geometry wheel through an on-board system. Active suspension systems design and is analyzed in LOTUS SUSPENSION ANALYSER to use separate actuators that exert an independent force on the get various values of the suspension geometry. suspension to improve the riding characteristics. Semi-active systems can only change the viscous damping coefficients and Keywords—traling arm, matlab, lotus suspension analysis, do not impart any additional force to the suspension system. In quarter car. most of passenger passive suspension system is widely used. In passive suspension system, there is always compromise I. INTRODUCTION between passenger comfort and handling. In passive Automobile chassis is mounted on the axle through a suspension system high stiffness spring gives good handling suspension system. Due to uneven road profile and variable but poor comfort. Low stiffness spring gives good comfort and velocity, vehicle is subjected to random excitation. It affects less handling. The main advantage of passive suspension comfort and road handling characteristics. The main objective system is that the design is simple and also economical. Also of suspension system is to safeguard the passenger against road maintenance cost is low. shock which may be in the form of bounce, roll, pitch etc. Also Trailing arm suspension is mostly used for the rear suspension has to limit the body displacement to a minimum. suspension of the passenger cars. It is also called as crank axle Suspension system of a vehicle is subjected to a force due to suspension system. Control arm placed longitudinally along the vertical loading, rolling, braking, acceleration and cornering. driving direction and mounted on suspension sub frame or Function of suspension system are- body on both the sides. Control arm is subjected to high torsional and bending stresses. It allows the wheel to move up To support vehicle and passenger weight. and down only. No change in camber and toe due to lateral and To safeguard the passenger against road shock and vertical forces. Increased un-sprung mass of trailing arms provide riding comfort. reduces the ride quality. In this wok quarter car model is considered for the analysis. To maintain steering and vehicle handling In quarter car model, the vehicle is converted into spring and characteristics, which is achieved by means of damper system which has one fourth mass of the vehicle. The mechanical linkages and controlling relative motion equations of motion are derived for the quarter model. between sprung and unsprung mass. IJERTV3IS060127 www.ijert.org 87 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 Vol. 3 Issue 6, June - 2014 The work on the suspension system shows the comparison between active, semi active and passive suspension system. It is also stated that comfort can be increased by using low stiffness springs [1]. Another study shows the effect of vehicle velocity and wheel base on RMSAR value i.e. Root Mean Square Acceleration Response. In that it is found that RMSAR is proportional to vehicle velocity and inversely proportional to wheel base. The two degree of freedom half car model is considered and studied for the random road input values [2]. The improvement in passive suspension system is done by using controllers to change the spring stiffness and damping. Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller is designed for quarter car model of passenger car to improve ride comfort and handling characteristics. The sprung mass displacement and acceleration has been reduced by using active suspension system [3]. Fig. 1. Quarter car model II. OBJECTIVE The equations derived from the quarter car model are as The objectives of the present work are as follows: follows: A. Mathematical Modeling ms xs ks xs xu cs xs xu 0 The physical suspension system of a vehicle is converted to mu xu ku xu y ks xs xu cu xu y cs xs xu 0 quarter car model with spring mass and damper system, where in vibration response is analyzed. Where, ms = Sprung Mass (Kg) B. Arriving at Optimum Values of Spring and Damper mus = Unsprung Mass (Kg) Coefficient ks = Suspension Spring Stiffness (N/m) To get the good comfort and handling characteristics. kus = Tire Stiffness (K/m) cs = Damping Coefficient (Ns/m) C. Static Geometry for Trailing Arm cu = Tire Damping Coefficient (Ns/m) x = Sprung Mass Displacement (m) To get the least amount of deviation in the suspension s xus = Unsprung Mass Displacement (m) geometry at bump and rebound. IJERTIJERT Suspension parameters are taken from the literature survey. D. Kinematic Analysis of Trailing Arm Suspension Changes in roll center and wheel base change can by TABLE I. SUSPENSION PARAMETERS analyzed in LOTUS Suspension Analysis [6]. Response time ms Sprung Mass 250 Kg of the designed quarter car model is plotted in SIMULINK. mus Unsprung Mass 50 Kg ks Spring Stiffness 18600 N/m III. METHODOLOGY ku Tire Stiffness 196000 N/m cs Damping Coefficient 1000 Ns/m To study any suspension system, it is important to derive b Wheel track 1.7m the equations of motion related to the system and then solving a Wheel base 2.7m them by appropriate mathematical tool. Generally for analysis Tyre size 255/35 ZR19 of vehicle suspension system various types of suspension models are used. The most commonly used models are quarter car model, half car model and full car model. In the present In order to approach for the design of trailing arm work the quarter car model is considered for the study. The suspension, the parameters involved must be studied. The advantage of the quarter car model is that it is simple and easy trailing arm acts as a rocker member of the suspension where to analyze. In this particular model, only one fourth of the in it is mounted to the chassis by pivot points. The spring and vehicle is taken into consideration to develop a vehicle damper are attached to the arm by pivot points, to get required suspension. This model is two dimensional model because only relative motion during moment of the arm. The parameters vertical movement is taken into consideration. It is basically involved are [5]: consists of a single wheel which is represented in the form of a Length of trailing arm spring. However in some cases the wheel can be considered as Angle of trailing arm. equivalent to a parallel combination of spring and a damper. Ride height. The actual shock absorber is assumed to support only one Inclination of the spring and damper. fourth of the weight of the total car body mass including passenger’s weight. The quarter car model considered in this The pivot point of the trailing arm is subjected to forces work is shown in fig 1. like; thrust force, braking force and cornering forces. IJERTV3IS060127 www.ijert.org 88 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 Vol. 3 Issue 6, June - 2014 Considering all these forces, the pivot point of the trailing arm TABLE III. SUSPENSION CO-ORDINATES is divided into two points, to share the load effectively. Component X (mm) Y (mm) Z (mm) Initial approximation of the geometry is considered for Trailing pivot 3026.36 -254.00 317.50 specified wheel track and base, and the effect of each point to the frame parameter on the suspension geometry is determined by Damper lower 3364.69 -368.71 279.78 varying single parameter and keeping all other parameters trailing arm end constant.