Suspensions or whole vehicles? Rating road-friendliness Online publication date: Tue, 18-Jun-2013
by John De Pont
International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems (IJHVS), Vol. 6, No. 1/2/3/4, 1999
Abstract: It is generally accepted that the use of suspensions that generate lower levels of dynamic loading has benefits for the infrastructure. The question of how to rate the 'road-friendliness' of a suspension has been the subject of considerable research and discussion. For practical purposes it is desirable that a rating be determined for a suspension and then applied to vehicles fitted with that suspension. However, it has been argued that the whole vehicle effects are so important that it is not sensible to rate a suspension in isolation. In this paper, a simple linear model is used to investigate the influence of whole vehicle effects on the response of the suspension at one of the axles (or axle group). In particular, the influence of wheelbase, vehicle speed, pitch inertia, centre of gravity position and the stiffness and damping of the other suspensions in the vehicle are investigated. From this analysis, the feasibility of developing a reasonable procedure for assessing the 'road-friendliness' of suspensions in a vehicle independent manner is evaluated.
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