INTRODUCTION TO SUSPENSION

Why do cars have suspension?

The object of a suspension system is to isolate the body and its occupants from the
irregularities of the road surface. Ideally the body should ride level and without
vertical motion however bumpy the road surface. Another important feature of
suspension is that it should keep the tires on the ground all the time. If there were
no suspension the tires would tend to lift off the ground every time they passed
over a bump at the same time, the shock as the wheels left the ground and then
came down again, would be transmitted directly to the passengers.

What does a suspension?

Ideally the suspension should allow the wheels to move up and down so that they
follow the undulations in the road while the body rides level. The first requirement
therefore is that the wheels should be able to move vertically relative to the body.
Every suspension has this wheel travel, which must be accommodated by some
means.

How is the wheel movement accommodated?

Springs are normally used (Figure 1.1). As the tire strikes a bump in the road, so a
vertical force is applied to the spring which is compressed or deflected. Therefore
the wheel moves vertically relative to the body, and the tire maintains contact with
the road surface. However, some of this force is transmitted through the spring to
the body, which also tends to rise. If the springs are very soft (i.e. have relatively
low spring rates) the body rises little, but if the springs are very stiff the body rises
quite a bit, depending on the severity of the bump. For a good ride, therefore, the
springs should be soft.

Do soft springs have any disadvantages?

Although soft springs give a good ride in most circumstances, they allow the body
to roll a lot during cornering. In practice, spring rates are a compromise between
the requirements of ride and handling.

Why does a car roll?

When a car turns a corner, centrifugal force acts on the body and tends to push it
outwards. However, this force is resisted by the tires, which grip the road; as a
result, the body rolls about its suspension (Figure 1.2).

What is the disadvantage of roll?

When the car rolls excessively it is more difficult for the driver to control its
direction. Also, when the car emerges from the corner and the body rolls back to
the upright position, it will roll past the upright position if roll is excessive, and
will take some time to right itself. Excessive roll can also make the wheels adopt
unfavorable angles, depending on the type of suspension fitted.

Are any other components needed?

In its simplest form the suspension consists purely of the springs and their
anchorages. However, when a spring is deflected it attempts to return to its normal
position immediately, and if left to itself it goes past the normal position and then
back again. It would take a number of these oscillations absorb the stored energy,
and only then would the spring return to the normal position.

How is spring oscillation controlled?

Dampers are used to cut down these oscillations so that, after going past the normal
position once, the spring soon returns to normal.
 SPRINGING REQUIREMENTS

What are the basic requirements of a spring?

Ideally a spring should be arranged so that it is soft enough to give a good ride;
yet it should be able to absorb all the energy resulting from road shocks without
using up all the wheel travel, and it should be stiff enough to prevent excessive roll
on corners.

Are all these possible?

Suspension is a compromise between conflicting requirements, but it is possible to

gain a good level of performance in all respects, although this can be expensive.
First, however, it is necessary to appreciate how these parameters are measured,
and how the important figures are calculated.

How is the softness of a spring measured?

Every spring has a rate, which is an indication of how much the spring is deflected
by load. This is normally indicated as load per unit deflection, given in Newtons
per millimeter (or pounds-force per inch). However, when it comes to ride, the
weight being carried has to be taken into account as well as the spring rate. For
example, if a small mass is applied to a spring there is hardly any deflection,
whereas a big mass applied to the same spring will give a big deflection, lithe mass
is then bounced on the spring, the small mass moves very little, very quickly,
whereas the big mass moves up and down quite a long way, but slowly. The
amount the mass deflects the spring is called the static deflection, and the rate at
which the mass bounces up and down is the natural frequency or periodicity of the
spring-mass system.

How is the static deflection found?

The static deflection, D mm, is simply the mass carried divided by the spring rate,
i.e. D = mass/spring rate.

How is the natural frequency found?

This is a bit more involved, in that the natural frequency = 30/ cycles/mm, where D
is the static deflection, in meters.

What are typical values?

Values vary according to the type of car. For a small saloon the static deflection is
often 110-140 mm, and the equivalent natural frequency between 90 and 80
cycles/mm. For a medium-size saloon, the figures might be 130-180 mm, between
85 and 70 cycles/mm; for a large saloon, 180-280 mm, between 70 and 55
cycles/mm. With some very advanced suspensions, figures of over 280 mm or
under 55 cycles/mm are obtained.

Do these figures vary with load?

The actual figures for a car vary according to the load carried. When the car is in
the kerb condition the frequencies will normally be higher than when it is fully
laden, with four people and their luggage in the car. Also, there is normally little
difference in the amount of weight carried by the front springs, laden or unladen,
but a big difference at the back.

Typical figures for a medium-size saloon are

Unladen, front 173 mm; 72 cycles/mm
Laden, front 180 mm; 70 cycles/mm
Unladen, rear 107 mm; 92 cycles/mm
Laden, rear 140 mm; 80 cycles/mm

At the front the difference is small enough to be ignored, but at the rear it makes
the ride firmer unladen than when fully laden. Ideally the frequency should remain
constant, irrespective of loading, and at a satisfactorily low level.

Can a constant frequency be obtained?

A constant frequency can be obtained only if the spring rate increases in proportion
as the load it carries increases. Of course the balance can also be improved by
arranging for the increase in weight to be applied equally to the front and rear
springs. In practice this is very difficult to arrange.

How is the stiffness of the spring measured in roll?

Basically, the stiffer the spring, the less the car will roll, although the spacing of the
springs and the roll-centre height also affect the amount the car rolls. The roll
stifThess, which is the measure of the way in which the springs resist roll, is given
by:

Roll stiffness = Cw x t x 0.08729 N m/deg

for independent suspensions, where Cw is the spring rate at the wheel, known as the
wheel rate, and t is the track of the car. For beam-axle suspensions:

Roll stiffness = Cs x s2 x 0.08729 N m/deg

where Cs is the spring rate, and s is the spring base, i.e. distance between the
effective positions of the left- and right-hand springs.
In simple terms, this means that an increase in either the spring rate or the spring
base (or track) will increase resistance to roll, and that more can be gained by
increasing the spring base (or track) than by increasing the spring rate.

How can the spring base be increased?

With a beam axle, the spring base is the distance between the springs (Figure 3.1),
and the practical width is determined by the necessity of giving clearance around
the wheels and brakes.
In practice, this means that the spring base is about 70-80 percent of the track, and
that the wheel rate in roll is only about 50-70 per cent of the wheel rate in bump.
There is little that can be done to increase the spring base with beam axles.

Is independent suspension better, then?

A better balance between ride and roll stiffness can be obtained with independent
suspension, because the wheel rate in bump is the same as it is in roll. So,
assuming that the linkages are equally good and that the roll centre of the
independent suspension is not very low (see later), independent suspension has this
one definite advantage.

Can roll stiffness be increased in any other way?

The addition of an anti-roll bar increases roll stiffness and reduces roll. An anti-roll
bar is a horizontal, transverse torsion bar, normally mounted in two rubber bushes
on the body. The ends are turned round to form levers, and are attached to the
suspension member or axle, either directly or through drop-links. When the front
wheels strike an undulation in the road so that both springs are deflected, the anti-
roll bar merely rotates, so it is not deflected and exerts no force on the body.
However, when the car goes round a corner, and rolls, one lever goes upwards and
the other downwards, so the anti-roll bar is twisted. The bar resists, and tries to
twist the car body back to the vertical position. Generally, then, the .addition of an
anti-roll bar reduces roll but does not affect the ride. The stiffness of an anti-roll
bar is usually referred to as its spring rate in roll.

Does the anti-roll bar have any side effects?

Quite often only one wheel hits a bump, and in this case the anti-roll bar does alter
the spring rate. What happens is that the anti-roll bar twists as the wheel is raised
but, since the other wheel does not move, the bar twists over its whole length (in
roll, the bar is twisted from both ends, as it were, so its effective length is half the
actual length). This situation, called single-wheel bump, has a higher bump rate
than when both wheels move upwards together. For example, if the spring rate of
the anti-roll bar is 7 N/mm and the wheel rate of the spring is 20 N/mm, then on
single- wheel bump the rate is 20 + 7/2 = 23.5 N/mm. If the proportions are of this
order, the passenger will hardly notice the difference. However, if the spring rate is
very low and the anti- roll bar is very stiff, a single-wheel bump will tend to rock
the car, inducing what is called a roll-rock condition, which can be uncomfortable.

Can the resistance to roll be altered in any other way?

Although the roll stiffness depends purely on the spring rate in roll, the anti-roll bar
and the spring base, the resistance to roll also depends on the roll centre. But in
essence the higher the roll centre, the less the vehicle rolls. Why does a high rod
centre reduce roll?
When a vehicle corners, the centrifugal force acts through the centre of gravity, and
it is this that makes the vehicle roll. However, if we consider the front of the car
(i.e. the front wheels, and the amount of the car they carry), then the body or
portion of the body must roll about some point, and that is the roll centre (Figure
3.2). The force making the vehicle roll is called the tilting moment, which is the
tilting force times its effective height. The effective height is the distance, h, from
the centre of gravity of the vehicle to the roll centre. Therefore, to reduce roll, h
should be kept to the minimum. If the two were at the same height, the car would
not roll at all. It is for this reason that the centre of gravity of a racing car is as low
as possible.

Apart from the problems with roll, are there any other limitations on how soft
the springing can be?

Even if roll could be kept to the minimum by the use of unusual suspension
geometry and anti-roll bars, there are limitations on how soft the springing can be.
The main limitation is the need to absorb all the energy applied to the spring by
road shocks without the spring crashing through. For example, let us assume that
a spring has 76 mm of movement from the normal laden condition to full bump,
and that the spring rate is 18 N/mm. Therefore, to compress the spring fully (or
make it crash through), 1350 N must be applied by a bump in the road; the force
will depend on the severity of the bump and the speed of the car, but loads of 890-
1100 N can be applied quite often. Now, consider a car with a same amount of
wheel travel, and a very soft suspension, with spring rates of only 10 N/mm. A
force of 760 N would take up all the wheel travel (10 N/mm x 76 mm = 760 N; so
if a force of 890 N were applied, not only would the springs be fully compressed,
but a force 130 N would be applied to the body. That would jolt the car, and also
create quite a noise.

Why cannot the wheel travel be increased?

More wheel travel can be incorporated to alleviate this problem, but there are a
number of problems. First, the wheel arches have to be made taller to allow
clearance for the wheels, and this can reduce passenger or luggage space.
Secondly, the springs and dampers have to be longer, and there may be little room
for them (especially in low cars). Thirdly, it is difficult to arrange for the
suspension to give suitable wheel control for large suspension travel.

How much wheel travel can be provided?

It is normal for there to be about 75-100 mm from normal laden to full bump; up to
150 mm is practical, especially on big cars.
How else can crash-through be avoided?

The use of springs with progressive rates and self-leveling systems can allow the
use of softer springs without the need for a lot of wheel travel. A spring with a
progressive rate is one in which the rate increases as the spring is deflected. In the
normal laden condition the rate might be 14 N/mm, after 25 mm of extra
compression it might be 18 N/mm, and at fill bump after 75 mm of compression it
might be 25 N/mm. Thus, although the rate at the normal laden condition might be
lower than in our original example, the load needed to compress the spring fully
would be slightly higher.

What does a leveling system do?

A leveling system allows a car to ride at the same height irrespective of its loading.
Usually it is hydraulic, and as the load increases (as people get in, or as luggage is
put in the boot) and the rear of the car goes down, so the hydraulic system pumps
the hydraulic struts up, raising the rear of the car to the original height. Equally,
when someone gets out and the car rises a little on its suspension, the system
removes fluid so that the car falls to its correct level.

What is the advantage of self-leveling?

The suspension has to be designed to suit the car when the driver is alone, when
there are two, three or four people in it, and when there is some luggage in the boot
as well. With a normal suspension, every time someone gets in, the springs are
compressed a little. So when the driver is alone, there might be 1 15 mm bump
travel, gradually reducing to about 75 mm when the car is laden normally, and
perhaps only 50 mm when fully laden. There must also be some rebound travel to
allow the wheel to fall down below the normal position, for instance when the
wheel goes over a pothole. Therefore, there might be 150 mm wheel travel
(normally 75 mm bump and 75 mm rebound) but filly laden, when the bump travel
is most needed, there would be only 0 mm travel. Now, with self-leveling there
might still be 150 mm of wheel travel, but there would always be 88 mm bump
travel and 62 mm rebound travel, for example. Not only does the car look better,
because it always rides level, but there is effectively more suspension travel
available, so softer springs can be used.

Is the amount of rebound travel important?

It is essential that the suspension has sufficient rebound travel, too little being a
common fault with many earlier cars. In the first place, if the wheel is able to fall
sufficiently to keep in contact with the road when it encounters a depression in the
road surface, the ride is much more comfortable and there are less shock loads than
if the wheel is hanging in mid-air for part of the time. But rebound travel is
extremely important on cornering: when a car corners the body rolls, so as far as
the suspension is concerned it is as if the inner wheel goes on rebound, and the
outer wheel on bump. If there is insufficient rebound travel, the inside wheel will
become airborne at reasonably high cornering speeds, thus reducing the cornering
power. To keep some load on the inner wheel when cornering, at least 62 mm of
rebound travel is needed.

What is the ideal suspension?

An ideal suspension would have very low frequencies in order to give a good ride,
but would have the aid of progressive-rate springs so that the frequency remained
constant irrespective of load. There would also be self-leveling, and the linkage
would be designed to give high roll centers so that there would be little roll and
anti-roll bars would not be needed. To go further, the suspension would need to be
designed so that every bump or ripple in the road was detected before it was
reached; a signal would then make the wheel move to allow for the bump, so that
the tire maintained contact with the road surface at all times, with the car riding
level.

DAMPING

Why are dampers needed?

Whenever the tire passes over a bump of any magnitude the springs are deflected.
The amount of deflection depends on the size of the bump, and the speed and
weight of the car. When the spring stops deflecting, it has a store of force
equivalent to the spring rate and the deflection: with an 18 N/mm spring, and a
deflection of 25 mm, the energy is 18 x 25 = 450 N. This energy than pushes the
wheel downwards, and if there were no damping the car would continue to
oscillate up and down on its springs for a long time. To prevent this continuous
oscillation, dampers are fitted.

How does the damper cut out these oscillations?

The damper offers a resistance to any motion of the suspension. Therefore when
the spring is deflected both the damper and the spring resist deflection; on rebound
the damper again resists deflection, but this time it opposes the force exerted by the
spring.

Should the damper exert the same force on bump and rebound?

Since the damper opposes the spring action only on rebound, the force it exerts
should be greater then than on bump. In any case, if the damper exerts a large force
on bump it just makes the ride harsher. Ideally, therefore, the damping force should
be small on bump and large on rebound.

Should the damping force vary with speed?

On bump, the speed at which the suspension is deflected depends on the

conditions, and can vary quite a lot. Therefore the resistance should increase as the
speed increases. The rate at which the suspension extends on rebound remains
constant, and depends on the natural frequency of the suspension, so the damping
should exert a constant force. This will be achieved if the damping force is
proportional to speed.

What would be ideal damping?

On a car, damping is a compromise between ride and handling. For a comfortable

ride, damping should be very light on bump; on rebound it should be light enough
to allow the car to traverse small bumps without any harshness, but stiff enough to
control the amount of oscillations after each bump so that the car does not wallow.
For handling, the car should have the minimum number of oscillations, so that the
car does not float. However, if the dampers are very stiff they will apply very high
initial forces when a car is turned into a corner, and this can also upset the
cornering.

What form do dampers take?

On the earliest cars there were no dampers, and interleaf friction and friction at the
suspension anchorages provided the only form of damping. However, since the
springs were very stiff, and hardly deflected at all, the absence of damping was not
too obvious. Later, when some attempts were made to make suspension softer, it
was found that damping was needed, and friction dampers were introduced. These
took the form of a number of friction discs clamped together and connected by
levers to the suspension so that, as the wheels moved up and down, the friction
faces rubbed against one another. These were not very consistent in operation, and
gave identical damping on bump and rebound-which is not ideal, of course. The
energy was converted into heat as the discs rubbed together; even in hydraulic
dampers the energy is dissipated in the form of heat.

How does a hydraulic damper work?

The basic principle is that a piston moves up and down with the suspension, and as
it does so forces fluid through a hole or a number of small holes. Because the holes
have a small area, there is a substantial resistance to the movement of the piston.
Obviously, the basic hardness of the dampers depends on the area of the holes.

ANTI-ROLL BARS

Are anti-roll bars fitted to many cars?

A large number of modern saloon, estate and sports cars are fitted with anti-roll
bars, both to reduce roll and to give the desired road holding characteristics. On
racing cars, different diameter anti-roll bars are used for different circuits, and the
links are arranged so that the length of the effective lever can be altered.

How does an anti-roll bar alter the handling characteristics?

The anti-roll bar reduces roll by increasing the spring rate in roll only-the roll rate
or roll stiffness. Therefore, if an anti-roll bar is added to a suspension at one end
only it alters the front-rear roll stiffness ratio, and this alters the handling
characteristics. As a general rule, if an anti-roll bar is added only to the front
suspension the car will under steer more, and if one is added only to the back the
car will over steer more.

What characteristics are best, and where does the anti-roll bar come in?

For normal use, it is desirable that a car should under steer (but not excessively),
since this is a much more stable condition, especially near the straight-ahead
position. The trend in the 1960s was to use anti-roll bars only at the front to obtain
the desired under steer, but more recently the trend has been to fit anti-roll bars at
front and rear, although with a much stiffer bar at the front. Under steer is still the
aim, but with less roll and less under steer than on some of the cars of the late
1950s and early 1960s.

What is the roll centre?

The roll centre is the point about which the car rolls when it corners. There is a roll
centre at the front and one at the rear, and a line joining the two points is the roll
axis- the axis about which the car rolls.

What fixes the height of the roll centre?

With a beam axle it is the links providing lateral location that determine the height
of the roll centre. Thus with leaf springs, the roll centre is at the height of the
spring anchorages; with a Panhard rod, at the point where the rod is connected to
the axle; with the Watts linkage, at the fixing of the link to the axle. See Figure 9.5.

How much can these heights be varied?

The roll-centre height with a Panhard rod can be altered quite a lot, depending on
how much room there is under the body. The Watts linkage gives a roll centre
within a few inches of the height of the axle, since it cannot be installed very low
or very high. With the conventional four-link arrangement the roll centre is above
the axle height, although it is possible to fit the splayed links or the A-bracket
below the axle, in which case the roll centre can be quite low.
How high should the roll centre be?

The height of the roll centre is dictated by the characteristics required, the distance
between the springs on the axle-the spring base-and the characteristics of the front
suspension. In most cases, though, the roll centre needs to be fairly high.

What difference does the height of the roll centre make?

The higher the roll centre, the less the car rolls; if the roll centre is above the centre
of gravity of the car, the car will roll inwards on corners! Very high roll centers can
give some undesirable characteristics but, since the effective spring base at the rear
is almost always quite a lot less than at the front, a higher roll centre at the rear is
needed to give good handling characteristics.

Are there any other important points about roll-centre heights?

When the car rolls, or goes down on the springs, it is important that the height of
the roll centre should not vary too much. Apart from the four-link suspension, the
roll centers of all these suspensions remain substantially constant when the car
rolls or pitches. The variation in height with the four-link system is not normally
sufficient to create problems, however.

What is roll steering?

Roll steering occurs when the vehicle rolls; as a result of the roll, the wheels are
moved so that they are not parallel with the body longitudinally. Semi-trailing
links, some combinations of double-link suspension with radius rods, and some
linkages for beam axles give roll steering.
Let us consider a beam axle, located by a pair of radius rods, parallel to the car, but
inclined upwards from the axle to the body. Now, when the car goes over a bump,
and the axle moves upwards relative to the body, the radius rods will move to the
horizontal. This lengthens the wheelbase, which is not critical in itself. However,
when the vehicle rolls, one wheel will go up and the other down relative to the
body. As a result, on the side where the wheel has gone up the wheelbase will have
been lengthened, while on the side where the wheel has gone down the wheelbase
will have shortened slightly. Therefore the axle will have turned relative to the
body, steering it- hence roll steering. In this case, if we are looking at a rear axle,
the wheels will be steering outwards relative to the corner, giving roll oversteer. If
the rods were inclined upwards in the normal condition, then roll undersreer would
result. At the front, roll steering usually results from geometrical inaccuracies in
the steering linkage, so that as the car rolls the steering arm is pulled inwards or
pushed outwards by the tie-rod. If there is any roil steering in the linkage it should
be roll under steer, since this is inherently safe, but roll steering should be avoided
if possible.

APPENDIX: SUSPENSION FORMULAE

where
b is the width of the spring blade (m), L is the distance between the eyes of
the spring when laden (m), t is the thickness of the blade (m), n is the number of
blades, and E is the modulus of elasticity, which (modified to allow for internal
friction) is 159 x 106 kN/m2.

For a torsion bar, the spring rate is given as the twisting moment per angular
deflection. When a lever is added, this can be converted into a rate for the vertical
deflection of the end of the lever.

Spring rate (torsion bar, for deflection at end of lever)

where
G is the modulus of rigidity, which is 78.5 x 106 kN/m2 in this case, d is the
diameter of the torsion bar (m), l is the effective length of the torsion bar (m), i.e.
half the length of the bar for an anti-roll bar, and e is the length of the lever (m).
Spring rate (coil spring)
where
G is the modulus of rigidity, which is 81.5 x 106 in this case, d is the wire
diameter (m), n is the number of free coils, and D is the mean coil diameter (m).

To find the number of free coils it is necessary to subtract the number of dead coils
from the total number of coils. The dead coils are those that provide the abutment
and so cannot be deflected, usually 1.5 to 2 coils.

Roll stiffness (independent suspension)

= Cw x t2 x 0.8729 N/deg

where
Cw is the spring rate at the wheel, i.e. wheel rate (N/mm), and t is the vehicle
track (m).

Roll stiffness (beam axle)

= Cs x s2 x 0.8729 N/deg
where
Cs is the actual spring rate (N/mm), and s is the spring track (m).
The wheel rate is not the same as the spring rare, and depends on the effective
leverage, or the separation of the springs relative to the track. Thus if the distance
from the centre-line of the car to the spring on a beam axle is a, and the distance
from the centre-line of the car to the centre-line of the wheel (i.e. half the track) is
b, as shown in (Figure A.l (a)), then:

Wheel rate Cw = Cs x (a2/b2) N/mm

With independent suspension the formula is similar, except that b is the length of
the suspension arm and a is the distance from its pivot to the axis of the spring
(Figure A.l (b)). With double-wishbone suspension the formula is modified to take
into account the effects of the other wishbone on the geometry. The formula
becomes:

Wheel rate Cw = (Cs x a2 x c2) /(b2 x d2) N/mm

where a,b,c and d are as shown in Figure A.2.