Technical Paper
Design, Modeling, and Analysis of Heave and Roll Decoupled Suspension Geometry for a Formula Student Prototype
2024-04-09
2024-01-2077
This work aims to present the application of mode coupling to a Formula Student racing vehicle and propose a solution. The major modes of a vehicle are heave, pitch, roll, and warp. All these modes are highly coupled – which means changing suspension rates or geometry will affect all of them – while alleviating some and making others worse. Decoupling these modes, or at least some of them, would provide more control over suspension setup and more refined race car dynamics for a given layout of racetrack. This could improve mechanical grip and yield significant performance improvements in closed circuit racing. If exploited well, this approach could also assist in operation of the vehicle at an optimal kinematic state of the suspension systems, to gain the best wheel orientations and maximizing grip from the tires under the high lateral accelerations and varied excitations seen on a typical road course.