Optimum design for passive suspension system of a vehicle to prevent rollover and improve ride comfort under random road excitations

Abstract

The main functions of suspension system are to provide ride comfort for the passengers and vehicle handling (road holding). But, in many studies, full attention to the ride comfort leads to the determination of incorrect suspension system parameters as well as other problems such as rollover and reducing road-holding ability in the vehicle. The aim of this study is to present a method for the optimized design of the vehicle suspension system in order to improve the ride comfort, road holding, workspace and preventing rollover, considering a full vehicle model with 11-DOF. The most important feature of this study is that the prevention of rollover factor and all of suspension functions are considered simultaneously. In this research, in order to assess the ride comfort, the vertical acceleration values of seats that are caused by random road roughness are calculated by power spectral density of road in frequency domain. In the context of prevention of rollover, Fishhook manoeuvre is performed using a mathematical model for the roll motion, and then the dynamic behaviour of the variables is considered in rollover threshold. Then, the optimization problem is solved to minimize the vertical acceleration values and vehicle roll angle by considering the physical limitation and safety of the model. The results of the optimization show that the vertical acceleration, in frequency domain at the desired boundary values (as defined in ISO 2631), decreases and rollover resistance of the vehicle increases.