Abstract

A vehicle suspension system is a complex vibration system having multiple degrees of freedom.
The purpose of the suspension system is to isolate the vehicle body from the road inputs. This
paper focuses on the design, development and analysis of vehicle suspension system. As we
know that the simplest model representing a system is always linear but when nonlinear problem
arises which requires considerable analytical and computational effort for systems with more
than two degrees of freedom. MATLAB Simulink model is developed to study the dynamic
behavior of suspension system for a lightweight vehicle. The Simulink model is based on the two
degrees of freedom system quarter car model. This model can be extended to full vehicle model

Introduction
Suspension is an arrangement of tires, tire air, springs, shock absorbers and linkages that
connects a vehicle to its wheels and allows relative motion between them [1]. In general, a
suspension system consists of four suspensions in four-wheel vehicles, where a suspension is
equipped at a wheel. Within the available suspension travel, aims of a vehicular suspension are:
(a) to isolate the vehicle body from external disturbances coming from irregular road surfaces
and internal disturbances created by cornering, acceleration, or deceleration, in order to have ride
comfort; (b) to carry the weight of the vehicle body; (c) to react to variations in load, which are
whether generated by changes in the number of passengers and luggage, or from internal
disturbances; and (d) to keep a firm contact between the road and the tires, in order to have good
handling performance that means drive safety. It can be seen that safety and ride comfort
characteristics of a vehicle mainly depend on the suspension system [2][3].
There are basically three types of suspension systems passive, semi-active and active suspension
system. In this paper passive and semi active suspension system are analyzed. Passive
suspension system consists of spring and damper coefficient. Damper acts as an energy
dissipating element while spring acts as an energy-storing element. Since these two elements do
not add energy to the system this kind of suspension systems are called passive. Parameters are
generally fixed in passive suspension system [4,5,6].

Most of the numerical analysis studies related to vehicle vibration were based on mass-spring-
damper systems. Generally, the studies were done by adopting parameters of ready-made
systems and necessary modification is done to existing systems to overcome the problems. This
approach is limited because of the complexity of the system. However, the use of simulation
software to analyze vibration characteristics for structures has enabled designers to analyze and
determine the components and suitable parameters that are able to overcome the vibration
problems [7].

The purpose of this study is to derive the governing differential equations of motions using
Lagrange’s equations and also obtain the natural frequencies of the system and the corresponding
mode shapes using MATLAB. Above obtained result can be verified using SIMULINK model of
the system.
Mathematical Model:

When a vehicle travels on rough road surface then it exhibits bounce, pitch, and roll other than its rigid
body motion. In this case we will be considering rolling motion other than two types of oscillatory motion
to be neglected. Neglecting the rolling motion and mass of tires, and combining the stiffness and
damping effects of tire and suspension system into an equivalent damping and stiffness system.
The simplest model of such suspension system is mentioned above.

Formulation
The governing system of differential equations which describe the bounce and pitch motions of
the system shown in Figure 2 is found using Lagrange’s Equations. The generalized coordinate
x(t) and θ(t)are used to describe the bounce and pitch motion of the auto body. The kinetic
energy is described in Equation 1as:

1 1
T = m x˙2 + J θ˙2 (1)
2 2

The potential energy is described in Equation 2 as:

2 2
1 1
U = k 1 ( y 1−x +l 1 θ) + k 2 ( y 2−x−l 2 θ) (2)
2 2

Rayleigh’s dissipation function describing viscous dissipation in the dampers is:

2 2
1 1
Q= c1 ( ẏ 1− ẋ +l 1 θ̇) + c 2 ( ẏ 2− ẋ−l 2 θ̇) (3)
2 2

The Lagrangian L=T −U evaluated from (1) and (2), and together with (3) substituted in (4) and
(5) one obtains equations of motion.

d ∂ L ∂ L ∂Q
dt ∂ ẋ ( )
− =
∂ ẋ ∂ ẋ
(4)

d ∂ L ∂ L ∂Q
dt ∂ θ̇ ( )
− =
∂ θ̇ ∂ θ̇
(5)

The application of Equations 4 and 5 yields:

m ẍ +(c ¿ ¿ 1+ c 2) ẋ+(l 2 c ¿ ¿ 2−l1 c 1) θ̇+(k ¿ ¿ 1+k 2 )x +( l 2 k ¿ ¿ 2−l 1 k 1 )θ=k 1 y 1 +k 2 y 2+ c 1 ẏ 1 +c 2 y˙2 ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿

2 2 2 2
J θ̈+(c ¿ ¿2 l 2−c 1 l1 ) ẋ +(l 2 c ¿¿ 2+l 1 c1 ) θ̇+(k ¿ ¿2 l 2−k 1 l 1) x+(l 1 k ¿¿ 1+l 2 k 2) θ=k 2 l 2 y 2−k 1 l 1 y 1 +c 2 l 2 ẏ 2+ c1 l 1 ẏ 1 ¿ ¿ ¿¿

The equations of motion can also be shown in matrix form as:

[ m0 0J ][ θ̈ẍ ((tt )) ]+[ c cl −c+c l

2 2
1

1 1
2 l 2 c 2−l 1 c 1 ẋ ( t )
][ ]
l 22 c 2 +l 21 c1 θ̇ ( t )
+¿

k1 k2 y1 c1 c 2 y˙1
¿
[
−l 1 k 1 l 2 k 2 ][ ] [ +
y 2 −l1 c 1 l 2 c2 y˙2 ][ ] (6)

MATLAB can now be used to do the algebra and find the characteristic roots. The following
MATLAB experiment was performed to obtain the roots of the complex conjugate pair.
We can use the finction “conv” to obtain the characteristics root.
Following MATLAB codes can be used to obtain damped natural frequencies and roots:

% Calculating Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

m = 1500; J = 2500; k1 = 30000; k2=30000;
l1=1; l2=1.5;
%Establishing Mass Matrix and Stiffness Matrix
m=[m 0; 0 J];
k= [k1+k2 k2*l2-k1*l1; k2*l2-k1*l1 k2*l2^2+k1*l1^2];
% Calling Function "eig" to Obtain Natural Frequencies and Mode Shapes
[u,lamda]=eig(k, m);
fprintf('\n')
disp('Natural Frequencies are:')
% Print Natural Frequencies
w = sqrt(lamda);
fprintf('\n')
% Print the Mode Shape
disp('Mode shapes are:')
fprintf('\n')
disp('u=')
fprintf('\n')
disp(u)
disp('w=')
fprintf('\n')
disp(w)

Natural Frequencies are:

Mode shapes are:

u=

0.0177 -0.0188
-0.0146 -0.0137

w=

5.6336 0
0 6.8747

MATLAB codes
m = 1500; J = 1875; k1 = 30000; k2=30000; c1= 3000; c2=3000;
l1=1; l2=1.5;
a = [m c1+c2 k1+k2];
b = [J c2*l2^2+c1*l1^2 k2*l2^2+k1*l1^2];
 C = conv(a,b);
fprintf('\n')
disp('C=')
disp(C)

d = [c2*l2-c1*l1 k2*l2-k1*l1];
e = conv(d,d);
fprintf('\n')
disp('e=')
disp(e)

f= 1.0e+009*[0.0028 0.0259 0.3172 1.1700 5.8500] - [0. 0. 2250000

45000000 225000000];
fprintf('\n')
disp('f=')
disp(f)

r = roots(f);
fprintf('\n')
disp('r=')
disp(r)

SOLUTION

>> Untitled2

C=

1.0e+09 *

0.0028 0.0259 0.3172 1.1700 5.8500

e=

2250000 45000000 225000000

f=

1.0e+09 *

0.0028 0.0259 0.3150 1.1250 5.6250

r=

-2.8830 + 7.0053i

-2.8830 - 7.0053i

-1.7420 + 5.6544i

-1.7420 - 5.6544i