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Automotive Suspension is one of the critical system in load transfer from road to Chassis or BIW. Using flex bodies in Multi body simulations helps to extract dynamic strain variation. This paper highlights how the MBD and FE integration helped for accurate strain prediction on suspension components. Overall method was validated through testing. Good strain correlation was observed in dynamic strains of constant amplitude in different loading conditions. Combination of different direction loading was also tested and correlated. Method developed can be used in the initial phase of the vehicle development program for suspension strength evaluation. Suspension is one of the important system in vehicle which is subjected to very high loading in all the directions. To predict the dynamic stresses coming on the suspension system due to transient loads, faster and accurate method is required. To accelerate the suspension design process it become necessary to get good accuracy in the results.

Utility or Off-road vehicles are characterized with their higher ground clearances. Higher ground clearance of vehicle requires the vehicle to have footsteps for easy entry and exit of passengers from the vehicle. A typical foot step construction consists of structural steel brackets with an Aluminum or plastic top panel. Conventional steel construction is heavier to meet weight bearing capacity and durability requirements. Our objective of this work is to explore lightweight materials which can meet these performance requirements with a lighter construction. We chose to study the continuous glass fiber reinforced plastic as an alternative to the metal construction.