Car suspension - An introduction!

Basics :The basic job of the car suspension is to maximize the friction between the road surface and the tires and body roll is minimized. Greater the friction more stable would be the steering and handling of the car. It allows the car to travel smoothly over bumps in the road by absorbing and dissipating kinetic energy from the point of contact. Furthermore, a suspension system allows the car to turn corners without rolling by shifting the car's centre of gravity to maintain balance.

If the roads were perfect we wouldnt need any kind of suspension. But it is not so. Hence suspension has a great importance.

What actually happen when a car move over an imperfection?

A bump in the road causes the wheel to move up and down perpendicular to the road surface. The magnitude, of course, depends on whether the wheel is striking a giant bump or a tiny speck. Either way, the car wheel experiences a vertical acceleration as it passes over an imperfection.

Without an intervening structure, all of wheel's vertical energy is transferred to the frame, which moves in the same direction. In such a situation, the wheels can lose contact with the road completely. Then, under the downward force of gravity, the wheels can slam back into the road surface. Hence we need a system that will absorb the energy of the vertically accelerated wheel, allowing the frame and body to ride undisturbed while the wheels follow bumps in the road.

The dynamics of moving car can be explained from 2 perspectives-

1. Ride - a car's ability to smooth out a bumpy road. 2. Handling - a car's ability to safely accelerate, brake and corner.

These two characteristics can be further described in three important principles-

A key part of the suspension system is the shock absorber. Its job is to convert kinetic energy into heat that can be absorbed by the shock's hydraulic fluid. Another key component of the suspension is the anti-sway bar (also known as an anti-roll bar), which connects the two sides of a car's suspension along the axle. If one side of the car moves up or down to any extent, the anti-sway bar is able to minimize the roll of the car by distributing the movement to the other side of the car. This means the car won't sway too much in either direction and will remain more level. The anti-sway bar is of particular use when going around corners, especially sharp ones.

Race car suspension systems make for an interesting contrast with standard cars. Although it's better and safer for both racing cars and standard cars to have all of their wheels in contact with the track or road at all times, and both use independent suspensions, the reasons they use them differ. The race car driver wants all four wheels to be on the track for stability, and so the wheels take advantage of the engine's power. The race car's suspension has to handle extreme acceleration and turns taken at high speeds and sudden stops, all of which are more than a standard car is built to deal with. The standard car's suspension, on the other hand, only has to deal with balancing comfort and performance

CAR CHASSIS PARTS: The suspension of the car is basically a part of chassis which has 4 main components:-

 Frame - structural, load-carrying component that supports the car's engine and body, which are in turn supported by the suspension.

Suspension system - setup that supports weight, absorbs and dampens shock and helps maintain tire contact.

 Steering system - mechanism that enables the driver to guide and direct the vehicle.

Control arm - components that make vehicle motion possible by way of grip and/or friction with the road.

COMPONENTS OF SUSPENSIONSYSTEM :Fundamental components of any suspension system are :1. Springs 2. Dampers and 3. Anti-sway bars.

SPRINGS:There are four basic designs 1.Coil springs:This is the most common type of spring and is, in essence, a heavy-duty torsion bar coiled around an axis. Coil springs compress and expand to absorb the motion of the wheels.

2. Leaf spring This type of spring consists of several layers of metal (called "leaves") bound together to act as a single unit. These are use on most trucks and heavy-duty vehicles.

3. Torsion bar A steel bar that is twisted to support the weight of the vehicle. Torsion bars are used in place of coil or leaf springs on some vehicles, and allow ride height to be adjusted to compensate for sage that occurs over time. Torsion bars use the twisting properties of a steel bar to provide coil-spring-like performance. One end of a bar is anchored to the vehicle frame. The other end is attached to a wishbone, which acts like a lever that moves perpendicular to the torsion bar. When the wheel hits a bump, vertical motion is transferred to the wishbone and then, through the levering action, to the torsion bar. The torsion bar then twists along its axis to provide the spring force.

A long spring steel rod or flat bar attached in such a way that one end is anchored while the other is free to twist. One end is fastened to the frame at one end and to a suspension part at the other. If an arm is attached at right angles, to the free end, any movement of the arm will cause the rod or bar to twist the bars resistance to twisting provides a spring action. The torsion bar replaces both Coil spring and Leaf springs in some suspension systems. The main advantage of the torsion bar over the Coil spring in the Front suspension is the ease of adjusting front suspension height. Some are mounted longitudinally (i.e., front of car to back of car) or transversely (i.e., from the left side to right side of the car).

4. Air spring:A Suspension system using air rather than metal springs to support the vehicle and control ride motions. Air springing results in a smoother ride, because the natural frequency of vibration of an air spring does not vary with loading as it does with metal springs. Air springs can be made very soft for the lightly loaded condition and the pressure automatically increased to match any increase in load, thus maintaining a constant sprint vibration period any load.

SPRUNG AND UNSPRUNG MASS

Based on where springs are located on a car -i.e., between the wheels and the frame. It is classified as sprung and unsprung mass.

The sprung mass is the mass of the vehicle supported on the springs, while the unsprung mass is loosely defined as the mass between the road and the suspension springs

The stiffness of the springs affects how the sprung mass responds while the car is being driven. Loosely sprung cars, such as luxury cars can swallow bumps and provide a super-smooth ride; however, such a car is prone to dive and squat during braking and acceleration and tends to experience body sway or roll during cornering. Tightly sprung cars, such as sports cars are less forgiving on bumpy roads, but they minimize body motion well, which means they can be driven aggressively, even around corners.

Loosely sprung car Provide super-smooth ride but may roll on steep turns

Tightly sprung car Good turning but less forgiving on bumpy roads.

DAMPERS (SHOCK ABSORBERS): Springs by themselves seem like simple devices, designing and implementing them on a car to balance passenger comfort with handling is a complex task. And to make matters more complex, springs alone can't provide a perfectly smooth ride. It is because springs are great at absorbing energy, but not so good at dissipating it. Other structures, known as dampers, are required to do this.

Unless a dampening structure is present, a car spring will extend and release the energy it absorbs from a bump at an uncontrolled rate. The spring will continue to bounce at its natural frequency until all of the energy originally put into it is used up. A suspension built on springs alone would make for an extremely bouncy ride and, depending on the terrain, an uncontrollable car.

To overcome this problem dampers are used. Shock absorbers or dampers slow down (or damp) and reduce the magnitude of vibratory motions by turning the kinetic energy of suspension movement into heat energy that can be dissipated through hydraulic fluid.

A shock absorber is basically an oil pump placed between the frame of the car and the wheels. The upper mount of the shock connects to the frame (i.e., the sprung weight), while the lower mount connects to the axle, near the wheel (i.e., the unsprung weight). In a twin-tube design, the upper mount is connected to a piston rod, which in turn is connected to a piston, which in turn sits in a tube filled with hydraulic fluid. The inner tube is known as the pressure tube, and the outer tube is known as the reserve tube. The reserve tube stores excess hydraulic fluid.

When the car wheel encounters a bump in the road and causes the spring to coil and uncoil, the energy of the spring is transferred to the shock absorber through the upper mount, down through the piston rod and into the piston. Orifices perforate the piston and allow fluid to leak through as the piston moves up and down in the pressure tube. Because the orifices are relatively tiny, only a small amount of fluid, under great pressure, passes through. This slows down the piston, which in turn slows down the spring.

Shock absorbers work in two cycles

compression cycle &

extension cycle. The compression cycle occurs as the piston moves downward, compressing the hydraulic fluid in the chamber below the piston. The extension cycle occurs as the piston moves toward the top of the pressure tube, compressing the fluid in the chamber above the piston. A typical car or light truck will have more resistance during its extension cycle than its compression cycle. With that in mind, the compression cycle controls the motion of the vehicle's unsprung weight, while extension controls the heavier, sprung weight.

All modern shock absorbers are velocitysensitive -- the faster the suspension moves, the more resistance the shock absorber provides. This enables shocks to adjust to road conditions and to control all of the unwanted motions that can occur in a moving vehicle, including bounce, sway, brake dive and acceleration squat.

STRUTS:A single, self-contained pivoting suspension unit that integrates a coil spring with a shock absorber. Struts are used on front wheel drive automobiles.

They provide a dampening function like shock absorbers, and they provide structural support for the vehicle suspension. That means struts deliver a bit more than shock absorbers.

Because shocks and struts have so much to do with the handling of a car, they can be considered critical safety features. Worn shocks and struts can allow excessive vehicle-weight transfer from side to side and front to back. This reduces the tire's ability to grip the road, as well as handling and braking performance.

ANTI-SWAY / ANTI-ROLL BARS:Anti-sway bars are used along with shock absorbers or struts to give a moving automobile additional stability. An anti-sway bar is a metal rod that spans the entire axle and effectively joins each side of the suspension together. When the suspension at one wheel moves up and down, the anti-sway bar transfers movement to the other wheel. This creates a more level ride and reduces vehicle sway. In particular, it combats the roll of a car on its suspension as it corners.

It also affects handling. A front anti-roll bar increases understeer and a rear bar increases oversteer.

SUSPENSION TYPES
1. SOLID BEAM AXLE (front suspension dependent system):In the beam axle setup both of the front wheels are connected to each other by a solid axle. It is basically a solid bar under the front of the car, kept in place by leaf springs and shock absorbers. This style was carried over to the first automobiles from the horse drawn carriages of the past. New developments in springs, roll bars, and shocks have kept the solid axle practical for some applications. If we look at the front end of a semi or heavy duty truck, we wouldve noticed that both of the front wheels are connect by a solid axle.

They haven't been used on mainstream cars for years for three main reasons: Shimmy - because the wheels are physically linked, the beam can be set into oscillation if one wheel hits a bump and the other doesn't. It sets up a gyroscopic torque about the steering axis which starts to turn the axle left-to-right. Because of the axle's inertia, this in turn feeds back to amplify the original motion. Weight - or more specifically unsprung weight. Solid front axles weigh a lot and either need sturdy, heavy leaf springs or heavy suspension linkages to keep their wheels on the road. Alignment - simply put, you can't adjust the alignment of wheels on a rigid axis. From the factory, they're perfectly set, but if the beam gets even slightly distorted, you can't adjust the wheels to compensate

2. SWING AXLE:Swing axle suspension, as the name suggests, set up so that the axles pivot about a location somewhere near the centre of the car and allow the wheels to travel up and down through their respective arcs. This system was eventually adapted for rear suspensions as can be found on the old beetles.

Old beetle suspension

FRONT SUSPENSION INDEPENDENT SYSTEMS

The front wheel's suspension systems are independent of each other (except where joined by an anti-roll bar) . These are of two types:1.MacPherson Strut or McPherson strut

2.Double wishbone suspension systems.

1. MacPherson Strut or McPherson strut The system basically comprises of a strut-type spring and shock absorber combo, which pivots on a ball joint on the single, lower arm. At the top end there is a needle roller bearing on some more sophisticated systems. The strut itself is the load-bearing member in this assembly, with the spring and shock absorber merely performing their duty as oppose to actually holding the car up. .

The steering gear is either connected directly to the lower shock absorber housing, or to an arm from the front or back of the spindle . When you steer, it physically twists the strut and shock absorber housing (and consequently the spring) to turn the wheel. The spring is seated in a special plate at the top of the assembly which allows this twisting to take place

2. Double wishbone suspension systems.

In this design the suspension is supported by a triangulated A-arm at the top and bottom of the knuckle. The earliest designs of the A-arm suspension included equal length upper and lower arms mounted parallel to the ground. Each wishbone, which has two mounting positions to the frame and one at the wheel, bears a shock absorber and a coil spring to absorb vibrations. Double-wishbone suspensions allow for more control over the camber angle of the wheel, which describes the degree to which the wheels tilt in and out. They also help minimize roll or sway and provide for a more consistent steering feel

In order to determine a way for the suspension to gain negative camber as it was compressed unequal length double A-arm suspension was born. By using an upper control arm that is shorter than the lower one, as the wheel travels up it tips in, gaining negative camber. This is because the upper arm swings through a shorter arc than the lower and pulls in the top of the tire as the wheel travels upwards. The advantage in this negative camber gain is that as the chassis rolls against the wheels, the increasing negative camber on the outside wheel helps keep the wheel upright against the road surface and allows the tire to generate the maximum possible cornering force.

By adjusting the length of the arms and their respective angles to the ground, there are infinite possibilities in the design of a vehicles roll centre height and swing arm length. This flexibility gives suspension designers unlimited options on how to best setup the suspension.

REAR SUSPENSION
Dependent Rear Suspensions If a solid axle connects the rear wheels of a car, then the suspension is usually quite simple -- based either on a leaf spring or a coil spring. In the former design, the leaf springs clamp directly to the drive axle. The ends of the leaf springs attach directly to the frame, and the shock absorber is attached at the clamp that holds the spring to the axle.

Independent Rear Suspensions If both the front and back suspensions are independent, then all of the wheels are mounted and sprung individually, resulting in "four-wheel independent suspension." In the rear of the car, the steering rack -- the assembly that includes the pinion gear wheel and enables the wheels to turn from side to side -- is absent. This means that rear independent suspensions can be simplified versions of front ones, although the basic principles remain the same.