The Effect of Masses in the Determination of Optimal Suspension Damping Coefficient

Abstract

The proper design of the suspension damper determines the ride quality and road holding performance of the suspension system against the road excitation. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of both sprung and unsprung masses on the root-mean-square vertical acceleration experienced by the occupants to determine the optimal value of the damping coefficient. Road excitation, 2-DOF mathematical model, and ISO 2631 weighting function were numerically modelled into three different cases in Matlab platform. The responses in root-mean-square value of acceleration were then evaluated. Further, the results were compared and the analysis was performed to determine the optimal value of the damping coefficient for the proposed suspension model. The obtained results indicate that varying the sprung masses with the proportional value of unsprung masses does not affect the root-mean-square value, but it increases the value of optimum damping coefficient by 131.5 Ns/m. Making the sprung mass constant increases the root-mean-square value by 0.005 m/s2 for each chosen unsprung mass. However, fixing the unsprung mass influences both acceleration and the value of damping coefficient.