11/13/2017 Suspension

System

Chirag Patel
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Function of Suspension System .................................................................................................................... 2
Definitions and terminology ......................................................................................................................... 3
Parts of suspension system ........................................................................................................................... 5
Types of suspension system.......................................................................................................................... 7
Dependent suspension system ................................................................................................................. 7
Independent Suspension System .............................................................................................................. 9
References .................................................................................................................................................. 13

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Introduction
Suspension system is one of main system of any vehicle body. It deals with all the disturbance of
road and try to neglect those disturbance to give comfort to passenger. It not only plays role for
passengers comfort but it also takes care and make it possible for driver to able to control the
vehicle under those road disturbances. Along with ride comfort and handling, vehicle suspension
system has to work effectively under wide range of acceleration, braking, high speed cornering
even under low traction condition. Here we are going to understand function of suspension
system and working of different suspension system. Some of most common suspension systems
are used from decades and new implements are made for those systems to achieve comfort and
handling which can meets modern car and safety.
Function of Suspension System
The basic function of suspension system are as follows:

1) Support vehicle body on the axle.

2) To isolate car body from disturbance to provide comfort to passengers.
3) To provide good road holding by good performance of vehicle in terms of its
acceleration, braking, cornering and traction ability.
4) To provide good handling to vehicle in pitching and rolling. i.e. minimize pitch and roll
motion.
5) Protects the vehicle itself and any cargo or luggage from damage and wear.
6) To ensure steering control is maintained during steer- which require wheel at proper
range of distance from surface.

Besides above basic function of suspension system, the requirements of suspension system are
stated below:

1) Both wheels on axle should able to move independently on axle. Ideally this is not
possible for solid axle suspension which we will discuss later
2) Unsprung mass of suspension should be kept low so that disturbance in wheel motion due
to load will be low, which is useful for safety consideration of vehicle.
3) Easy to use
4) Low cost and minimum wear of tire.
5) Minimum maintenance and assembly.

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Definitions and terminology
In suspension system, we are interested in the movement of vehicle body relative to parts of
suspension system which are moving and wheels. Here mass of vehicle body is sprung mass
while mass due to suspension system and wheels are unsprung mass. So, in that case we will put
vehicle axis at the Center of Gravity of sprung mass.

1) Vehicle Axis System: - Vehicle axis system is right hand orthogonal axis system which is
fixed at the center of gravity of sprung mass (i.e. vehicle body mass). Vehicle moves
straight direction is in longitudinal direction, the X-axis. The Y-axis points towards right
side of driver (cause its right hand orthogonal) and the Z-axis points downwards. The
figure shows vehicle axis system. (Happian-Smith, 2002)

Figure 1 sprung mass axis system (Happian-Smith, 2002)

2) Kingpin inclination: - Kingpin inclination is the angle measured in degrees, which is

angle between kingpin axis and line perpendicular to ground, looking from front of
vehicle.
3) Kingpin offset: - The distance between center of tire and intersection of kingpin axis and
line perpendicular to ground, looked from front of vehicle.
4) Camber Angle: - Camber is angle between center line of wheel and line perpendicular to
ground, viewed from front or rear of vehicle.
5) Caster Angle: - Caster is angle between steering axis and line perpendicular to ground,
viewed from side.

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6) Toe-In: - When a pair of wheel are set such that the edges of wheel are pointed towards
each other, then wheel pair is said to be toe-in.
7) Toe-Out: - When a pair of wheel are set such that the edges of wheel are pointed away
from each other, then wheel pair is said to be toe-out.

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Parts of suspension system
The fundamental components of any suspension system are springs, shock absorbers and anti-
sway bar. Each of this are explained briefly below,

1) Springs: - In todays automobile, four types of springs are used. They are Coil spring,
Leaf spring, Torsion bar and Air spring.
a) Coil Spring: - This are the most common type of spring used. In fact, they are also
called coiled torsion bar ( Chris Longhurst , n.d.). This coil spring compress and
expands with motion of wheel, giving comfort to rider. They are mostly used near
front wheels but they are used beside rear wheels too.
b) Leaf Spring: - This spring use steel strip (leaves) one over another with reducing
length and they bound together as single unit. Leaf spring is one of oldest type of
spring use in suspension system. In modern car, we cannot find leaf springs, but it is
still used in some trucks and heavy-duty vehicles.
c) Torsion bar: - A torsion bar is solid steel bar, one end of bar is connected to chassis
and another end is connected to wishbone which acts as lever, that is capable to move
perpendicular to bar. Torsion bar can be use across the car also along the car ( Chris
Longhurst , n.d.). When car wheel hit bump, the vertical motion is taken to torsion bar
with the help of wishbone which work as lever. The torsion bar then uses it resistant
twisting property providing twists along axis to produce spring force.
d) Air spring: - Air spring consist of cylindrical chamber fill with air/fluid, kept between
wheel and cars body. Compressible property of air helps to absorb the wheel
vibrations. Due to high cost and freezing of moisture in air, air spring is not used
widely.
2) Shock Absorbers: - Springs are good at absorbing energy but not at dissipating it, so for
that we need shock absorbers. Without shock absorbers car will keep bouncing up and
down for long after going through bump or pit, making car uncontrollable. Shock
absorbers convert springs kinetic energy into heat energy and dissipate this heat energy
through running hydraulic fluid into to shock absorber. All modern shock absorbers are
velocity sensitive, providing more resistances when suspension moves faster. (Harris,
2005)

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3) Anti-sway bar: - Anti-sway bar (also known as anti-roll bars) (Harris, 2005) is used
beside shock absorber, which provides more stability to vehicle. So, it is also known as
stabilizer bar. An anti-sway bar is solid metal rod, bolted to chassis at it center. With each
end connected to the both side of suspension system via end links allowing car
suspension independent during cornering. When suspension at one side moves up and
down, anti-sway bar transfer movement to another suspension making level ride and
reducing vehicle sways motion.

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Types of suspension system
Above we discussed about different parts of suspension- spring, dampers and sway bar and how
they are placed beside wheel. But in general vehicle have four wheels and these wheels are
divided like two wheels at front axle and two at rear axle. Which means car use different types of
suspension system at front and rear axle. Here we are going to discuss dependent and
independent suspension system, which are most commonly in use.

Dependent suspension system

In dependent suspension when one wheel strike by pit hole then the effect of this is transmitted
to another wheel as they relate to each other by a solid bar. This impact on riding comfort and
handling of car. Due to this dependent suspension system are not used for passenger cars.
Though they are still found on commercial vehicle and trucks, also in off-road vehicles. The
most common form of dependent suspension system is Hotchkiss drive.

1) Hotchkiss drive: - Hotchkiss drive is most commonly used dependent suspension system.
It is used at the rear axle of vehicle. Basically, it is solid axle with leaf spring attached on
both wheels. The figure shows arrangement of Hotchkiss drive.

As seen from the

figure, leaf spring
is attached to
solid rear axle.
One end of spring
is attached
directly to chassis
with pin bolted in
bracket on cars
body. While
another end is
Figure 2 Hotchkiss Drive (Jazar, 2008)
connected to
body frame by swinging links also known as shackles. Due to such arrangement, spring deflects

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when vehicle is braked or accelerated. Here spring deflection takes place due to load shifting
during acceleration and braking.

Advantages: -

i. Construction of Hotchkiss is simple and it is cheap to build it.

ii. Maintenance is easy and less time consuming, also life is long-lasting.

Disadvantages: -

i. The main disadvantage of Hotchkiss is that they are heavy. And their mass is considered
unsprung mass of cars which is consider to determine ride comfort and handling of car.
ii. Leaf spring is limited flexible as it is control by shackle, so instead of resisting certain
force it will get deflect under those forces.
iii. Leaf spring have steel strip over one other, this produces friction making harshness in
comfort and sometime difficult in handling too.

2) De Dion Tube: - De Dion tube is considered semi-independent suspension system which

removes disadvantage of ride comfort unlike from Hotchkiss drive. Unlike from
Hotchkiss drive and other live axle, De Dion tube (dead axle) connects wheels while
unspring mass of half shaft and differential is reduced as they are mounted to chassis. De
Dion tube have sliding tube which allows lateral moment and helps to track movement of
suspension.

Advantages: -

i. As differential and half-shafts are connected to chassis/ cars body, unsprung mass is
reduced and which improves comfort and handling of car.
ii. For De Dion tube, we can use inboard brake system, which provide braking torque
directly to the chassis instead of providing to suspension system.
iii. Due to dead axle, wheels remain parallel to each other and perpendicular to ground which
means it give good traction, no matter what obstacles wheels goes to and provide more
stability for high speed cornering. Thus, there is no camber and no wheel tear due to
camber.

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Disadvantages: -

i. De Dion tube is complex system due to two universal joints for each wheel and it
weight high.
ii. Inboard brakes are attached to chassis so during maintenance of braking system one
must remove whole suspension system which is time consuming and costs more.
iii. De Dion tube can use coil spring or leaf spring but it for lateral location it need extra
rod, or trailing links which again makes De Dion tube complex, weight more and
expensive suspension system.

Independent Suspension System

In independent suspension system, the disadvantage of dependent suspension system is removed.
Here both wheels are not related to each other, allowing each wheel to move independently.
Most of modern vehicles uses independent suspension system due to this advantage. Also,
independent suspension system gives riding comfort and handling to drivers due to which they
are mostly used and manufactured by automobile industries. Various types of independent
suspension are used in automobile, some of them are MacPherson strut, multi-link systems,
double wishbone, trailing arm, semi-trailing arm and swing axle (Happian-Smith, 2002), some of
these suspension systems are used at front and at rear while some are only used at front or only at
rear suspension of car. In this section, we are going to discuss most commonly used independent
suspension system only. They are MacPherson
Strut and Double Wishbone.

1) MacPherson Strut: - MacPherson Strut

is mostly widely used in modern
vehicles at front and rear axle of
vehicles. It was first introduced by
Earle S. MacPherson of General
Motors in 1947 (Harris, 2005).
MacPherson Strut is combination of
Figure 3 MacPherson Strut (Harris, 2005)
coil spring and shock absorber into
single mechanism as shown in figure 3.

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 MacPherson strut is different from other suspension system because the combo of spring and
shock absorber is directly connected to body of car as shown in figure. It has single control
arm which is connected to bottom of wheel hub, providing longitudinal and lateral location
of wheel. The top of wheel hub is connected to lower end of combo of spring and shock
absorber strut, which moves upward and downward. Also steering link is connected to center
of wheel hub making spring and shock absorber strut steering axis of wheel.

Advantages: -

i. Since MacPherson strut has only lower control arm, it is simple in construction,
inexpensive and lighter than other independent suspension system.
ii. Great for Front wheel drive as it is spacious at the center of wheel hub which can be
perfect for installation of driveshaft.
iii. In dimension wise, it is narrow than double A or double wishbone suspension system so
it can be suitable for compact vehicles too.

Disadvantages: -

i. Though it is narrow then double wishbone suspension, it is taller than double wishbone
suspension and its challenging to use it for low body vehicles. i.e. sporty cars.
ii. As spring and shock absorber strut is directly connected to body, slight change in camber
can results into body roll.
iii. Since spring and shock absorber is directly connected to body, the vibrations from the
wheel is transmitted to the body making body vibrate and making noise. This can make
significant effect on bushing and other components of suspension.

2) Double wishbone Suspension system: - Double

wishbone also known as double-A ( Chris Longhurst ,
n.d.) consist of two wishbone or arms, each having tow
mounting points at one end mounted to frame and
another end joint to knuckle. A spring and shock
absorber arrangement is placed between these two
Figure 4 Double wishbone ( Chris Longhurst ,
wishbones as shown into the figure 4. Brake system and n.d.)

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 wheel is attached to knuckle joint which can be understand from the figure. This
arrangement of spring and shock absorber moves upward and downward due to bump
and pit experienced by wheel. When car is moving front experiencing unlevel road, due
to arrangement of spring and shock absorber, the camber wont change which is good for
ride comfort and handling. But
when vehicle is turning around
corner, there will be deflection
in camber angle and this can
roll the vehicle. To overcome
this problem, engineer
shortened the upper arm
(Explained, 2012) making both
arm of different lengths. How
this change can be helpful while
turning around corner is shown
Figure 5 short long arm suspension on cornering (camber angle) in figure 5. The positive and
negative signs show the camber
angle produced due to turning. When equal length arm is used, the vehicle will roll right
side producing positive camber at outer wheel and slight negative camber at inner wheel.
When upper arm is shortened compare to lower arm, outer tire will have slight negative
camber due to which proper traction of outer wheel is obtained similarly at inner tire
there will be slight positive camber making proper contact between tire and ground.

Advantages: -

i. As body roll negative camber increase and it matches with the roll, hence it provides
better contact between tires and ground.
ii. The construction of double wishbone is flexible in sense of position of spring and shock
absorber arrangement. This arrangement can be made at the lower arm or even at upper
arm according to requirement.
iii. Double wishbone provides larger deflection, so it is also good for off road vehicles.
iv. It can be use in FWD and RWD

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Disadvantages: -

i. It is expensive due to complex construction.

ii. Due to more number of components it is time consuming during maintenance and labor
costs is high.

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References
Chris Longhurst . (n.d.). Carbibles. Retrieved from www.carbibles.com:
http://www.carbibles.com/suspension_bible.html

Explained, E. (2012, Feburary ). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsEmK1M87VQ

Happian-Smith, J. (2002). An Introduction to Modern Vehicle Design. Woburn, MA: Reed Educational and
Professional Publishing Ltd.

Harris, W. (2005, may 11). Retrieved from HowStuffWorks.com: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-

suspension.htm

Jazar, R. N. (2008). Vehicle Dynamics: Theory and Application . Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Rajamani, R. (2006). Vehicle Dynamics and Control. Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

wikipedia. (2017, november). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Dion_tube

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