Uncertainties in road vehicle suspensions

Abstract

Road vehicles are subject to random excitation by the unevenness of the road. For a dynamical analysis, vehicle models of the vertical vibrations as well as guideway models of the road unevenness are required. The fundamental dynamics of vehicle suspensions can be already modeled by a quarter car featuring the decoupling of the car body motion and the wheel motion. This suspension model is characterized by five design parameters where two of them, the shock absorber and the tire spring, are highly uncertain due to wear and poor maintenance. For the assessment of the vehicles performance three criteria have to be used: ride comfort, driving safety and suspension travel. These criteria depend on all the five design parameters resulting in a conflict or a pareto-optimal problem, respectively. In this paper, the uncertainties of the parameters are projected into a criteria space in order to support the decision to be made on the basis of a pareto-optimal problem. Simulations with uncertainties support the robust suspension design. It is shown that controlled suspension parameters remain uncertain due to the unpredictable decisions made by the driver.