Comfort Parameters Tuning Analysis for Vehicle Suspension Pitch Performance

Abstract

Suspension system is the mechanism that is applied between the tire and the body of a vehicle. It absorbs the undesirable force that exerted on the tire transmitted to the body of the vehicle. In order to reduce the undesirable force from uneven road, the spring stiffness and damping value of the suspension should be tuned to improve the passengers' comfort. The suspension is tuned at various values of spring stiffness and damping that initially verified from a commercial vehicle dynamic software. The tuning process considers the vertical and pitch performances of the vehicle through a simple step inputs. From the analysis, the values of overshoot for vertical and pitch motions are compared. The lower the values the better the performance of the tuned parameters. A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is used for this tuning analysis. The optimal values of spring stiffness and damping are determined and can be used for further dynamic control and comfort improvement study.