The Effect of Tire Mass, Damping Coefficient, and Spring Stiffness on the Car Suspension Performance and Vibrations

Abstract

The primary elements of the conventional suspension systems, which called passive suspension system, are the wheels with tires, the wheel carrier systems, damper and spring elements, the brakes and steering. The dynamic behavior and performance of passive suspension systems is primarily determined by choice of spring stiffness and the damping coefficient. In this paper, the performance of a passive suspension system is evaluated using a quarter-car model, where the proposed system is evaluated at different parameters of the system parts by choosing three values for each parameter of the spring stiffness, the damping coefficient, and the car tire mass. The two main factors that should be taken into consideration that represent the performance of the suspension are the acceleration of the car body and the tire deflection, where the first factor denotes ride or passenger comfort, while the second factor refers to road holding. The mathematical model of the passive suspension system is performed; this model is used to construct the Simulink model of the system. This study showed that there is a slight effect of the values of the spring stiffness, damping coefficient, and tire mass on the performance of the suspension system.