Title: Design and damping matching method for a novel decoupled suspension system

Authors: Junnian Wang; Zhe Liu; Da Wang; Zhonghao Li; Guanrong Chen

Addresses: National Key Laboratory of Automotive Chassis Integration and Bionics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, China ' National Key Laboratory of Automotive Chassis Integration and Bionics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, China ' National Key Laboratory of Automotive Chassis Integration and Bionics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, China ' National Key Laboratory of Automotive Chassis Integration and Bionics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, China ' Shanghai Turing Information Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, 200082, China

Abstract: To address the coupling of stiffness and damping in the suspension system of high-performance vehicles under heave and roll manoeuvres, this paper designs a decoupled suspension system and proposes a damping matching method. First, the motion characteristics of various decoupled suspension structures are analysed, leading to the development of the decoupled suspension in which roll stiffness is provided by a torsion bar. Then, damper selection and testing are conducted, and the damping matching method for the decoupled suspension system is proposed. Finally, three tests are conducted: multi-body dynamics simulation for decoupling analysis, lap time simulation for the vehicle performance, and real-vehicle test for the symmetry of the damper motion. The results show that a race car equipped with the decoupled suspension achieves shorter lap times compared to one with a traditional suspension, and the proposed damping matching method provides an ideal baseline for suspension design and tuning.

Keywords: race car; decoupled suspension; damping matching; multi-body dynamics simulation; lap time simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2025.149120

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2025 Vol.98 No.1/2/3/4, pp.55 - 76

Received: 20 Jan 2024
Accepted: 11 Mar 2025
Published online: 14 Oct 2025 *

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