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Riding Comfort Enhancement Using C-Shaped Spring Suspension

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Abstract

Advances in automobile technology have led to the dynamic development of various types of active suspension systems to improve passenger riding comfort and maneuverability. This study improved the riding comfort of vehicle passengers by converting a conventional spring into a rotating C-shaped spring system that supports the load of the vehicle and varies its vertical stiffness. The C-shaped spring system rotates the spring in the multi-link suspension structure, utilizing the mechanical properties of the spring itself and the offset effect of the spring seat to vary the wheel rate. Using this effect, the riding comfort of an automobile can be improved to a certain level by altering the motion characteristics of the automobile body as it reacts to road bumps and irregularities. A C-shaped spring, an offset spring seat, and a rotating system were combined and installed on the rear suspension of an SUV. A field test of a vehicle driving over a speed bump was conducted to comparatively analyze the obtained data measurements, which verified the utility of the increased riding comfort when the vehicle was equipped with the proposed rotating C-shaped spring system.

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Abbreviations

k t :

wheel stiffness

k s :

spring stiffness

k sf,sr :

spring stiffness at the front (sf) and rear (sr) suspension

k w :

virtual spring stiffness acting between wheel and car body

k wf,sr :

virtual front (sf) and rear (sr) spring stiffness acting between wheel and car body

i :

distance ratio of lw and ls

i f,r :

distance ratio of front (f) and rear (r) suspensions

i d :

offset distance from spring central axis to load action line

θ :

rotation angle of spring

l dr :

offset distance from spring central axis to load action line in rear suspension

l s :

distance from car body to spring central axis

l sr :

distance from car body to spring central axis in rear suspension

l w :

distance from car body to wheel

l wr :

distance from car body to wheel in rear suspension

c :

offset from car body mass and spring CG

δ s :

spring compressing distance

δ w :

virtual spring compressing distance in wheel

F w :

vertical load in wheel

F s :

vertical load in spring

CG:

center of gravity

SUV:

sports utility vehicle

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the World Class 300 Project(R&D) (S2317960) of the SMBA (Korea).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, Korea

    Chanhyuk Nam, Jangho Bae & Daehie Hong

  2. Vehicle Platform R&D Center, Convergence Technology R&D Division, Korea Automotive Technology Institute, 303 Pungse-ro, Pungse-myeon, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungnam, 31214, Korea

    Sungjin Choi

  3. Technology Team 2, R&D Center, Daewon Kang Up Co., Ltd, 114-41 Osong 1-gil, Seonggeo-eup, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungnam, 31042, Korea

    Sangeun Bae

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  1. Chanhyuk Nam
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Correspondence to Daehie Hong.

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Nam, C., Choi, S., Bae, S. et al. Riding Comfort Enhancement Using C-Shaped Spring Suspension. Int.J Automot. Technol. 22, 1387–1395 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-021-0120-5

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