Experimental Analysis of Suspension Kinematics and Compliance Characteristics of Sensitivities and Combined Load Cases with the Suspension Motion Simulator 2019-01-0852

The vehicle handling dynamics stands in the central place of the automotive developing processes. The accurately parameterized vehicle handling models play an important and useful role at different vehicle developing phases. At the early phase of vehicle development, they can be used to set the desired target by comparing the handling characteristics of other OEMs' vehicles. For the further developments of active systems, the right parameterized models are the basis to design the control systems in a virtual simulative environment. Therefore, there are the strong needs to develop a systematic methodology to parametrize the vehicle handling models, whose qualities should also be assured by the validation of field testing. The kinematics and compliance (KnC) behavior of the suspension is in the focus of this study. Compared with parameterization methods of other chassis subsystems, sensitivity analyses of suspension KnC testing conditions were very few in literatures published. With the help of the Suspension Motion Simulator (SMS) from MTS Systems Corporation, different factors of testing conditions (such as testing speeds, tire pressures, damper temperature etc.) have been researched as to find appropriate testing conditions for a reliable and accurate data set of vehicle handling models. Generally for standard KnC testing maneuvers, movement or force & moment is only in one degree of freedom applied, which is not exactly the same as in the real vehicle driving situation. New testing maneuvers considering various combined load cases were developed and conducted. The new testing maneuver including the roll movement and compliant inputs is suggested for parameterization of vehicle handling models, as it reproduces more realistic vehicle driving condition during cornering.