ACR-004 Adams/Car Dynamic Suspension Analysis

Product(s): MD Adams Car Package (Car)

MD Adams View Package (Flex)
Feature(s): Dynamic Suspension Analysis
Directory: Dynamic_Suspension.cdb (database)
Files: Dynamic_Suspension.cdb.zip

Problem Statement
This example demonstrates the ability to carry out Dynamic Suspension Analysis.
Earlier, the Suspension Assembly was limited to carry out only quasi-static
simulation. Now, your suspension assembly is simulated with Adams/Solver
Simulate/Dynamic command.
This feature allows you to directly provide a RPCIII file or define View Functions to
specify Jack and Steering motion as a function of displacement, force etc.

Model Description
A Suspension Assembly consisting of
a double wishbone suspension and a
rack and pinion steering system is
provided.
A dynamic suspension analysis is
carried out to actuate the wheel pads
across a range of frequencies. We are
interested in looking at the lower
control arm bushing force and how
the force changes by replacing the
rigid lower control arm by a flexible
body. In addition, we use the flex
body swap dialog box to switch a
rigid lower control arm with a flexible
one. We then plot the stress on the
flexible body node and visualize it.

Investigate the model and carry out a Dynamic Analysis

Here you first analyze a double wishbone suspension with rigid lower control arm
1. Start Adams/Car MD R2, Select Standard Interface.
2. Extract the Dynamic_Suspension.cdb to your hard drive. Add this to your
session by going to Tools – Database Management – Add to Session. In
the Database Alias Field enter Dynamic_Suspension and browse to the
location on your disk where you extracted the Dynamic_Suspension.cdb.

MD R2 Adams -1- December 2006

 3. Create a new Suspension assembly: File – New – Suspension Assembly.
Fill the dialog box as indicated below. To select the subsystems, Right-click
– Search - <acar_shared> to open the file browser.

4. The suspension assembly should be displayed.

5. To simulate using the Dynamic Solver Statements, go to Simulate –
Suspension Analysis – Dynamic
6. You will use View Functions to define the vertical displacement of the Jack.
The function below steps up the amplitude from 10 mm in bounce and
rebound to 30 mm respectively with a frequency of 4 Hz.

7. To animate the results, from the Review menu, select Animation Controls.
Animate the model and observe the change in the suspension travel.

MD R2 Adams -2- December 2006

Review the results
Plot the bushing force in the lca_front bushing:
1. Hit the F8 key in Adams/Car to switch to Adams/PostProcessor.
2. Locate the bkl_lca_front_force and bkr_lca_front_force REQUEST under
user-defined REQUESTs:

The fz_front component corresponds to magnitude of the force in the Z direction.

Plot this quantity to obtain a figure similar to the following:

Change Rigid Lower Control arm to be a Flexible Body

Here you use the Flex body Swap dialog box feature available in the Standard
interface to replace the left rigid lower control arm with a flexible body. The MNF file
used for representing this flex body is created in Nastran.
To replace the lower control arm:
1. Go to Adjust – General Part – Rigid to Flex. This displays the flex body
swap dialog box.
2. Right click the Current Part Field - Pick and select the Left Lower control
arm. In the MNF File field, Right-click – Search –
<dynamic_suspension>\flexbodys.tbl and select the
left_lca_mnf_input.mnf mnf file.

MD R2 Adams -3- December 2006

 3. Click on the Connections tab next and highlight the Move column and click
Preserve Expression button and click OK.

4. A dialog box will pop up warning you that orientation parameterization will be
lost. Click OK. Now, the rigid lower control arm in red is replaced by the white
flexible body.
Simulate the Model
You again carry out a dynamic analysis with this model now containing a flexible
body.
1. Go to Simulate – Suspension Analysis – Dynamic
2. Name the Output Prefix to be Rigid_Flex and keep the remaining dialog
box unchanged.
After the simulation is successful, animate the model to make sure it is behaving
as expected.

MD R2 Adams -4- December 2006

Review & Compare Results
Here you plot the bushing force for the lower control arm and compare the force on
left and right side.
To review the results:
1. Locate the bkl_lca_front_force and bkr_lca_front_force REQUEST under
user-defined REQUESTs:

2. Because of the left lower control arm being a flexible body, note the
difference in the bushing force.

Optional: Load Durability Plugin to display Stresses and Identify the

Hotspots
Here you will load the Durability Plugin and identify the hot-spots on the flexible
lower control arm and also plot the nodal stresses. For better visualization, in the
Adams/Car Standard Interface change the background color from Black to Gray
(Settings – View Background Color).
To Display Stresses and animate the flex body:
1. Change to Adams/Postprocessor and switch to Animation mode.
2. Go to View - Load Animation – select Rigid_Flex_dynamic to load the
animation.
3. Go to Tools – Plugin Manager and check the load Adams/Durability option.

MD R2 Adams -5- December 2006

4. In the Animation tab right click the Component field and select the flexible
body gel_lower_control_arm_flex. This only displays the flexible body and not
the whole model.

5. Select the Contour Plots tab; set Contour Plot Type to Von Mises Stress and
check Display Legend.

6. Select the Hot Spots tab; check Display HotSpots and fill the dialog box as
shown below. You are interested in looking at the top 2 hotspots on the flexible
body.

7. Play the animation; you would observe the change in stress with the hot spots
being identified.

MD R2 Adams -6- December 2006

8. From the above exercise, you can note that Node with ID 709 experiences the
maximum Von Mises Stress. You can now, plot the stress at this node. Go to
Durability menu at the top and select Nodal Plots. The dialog for Nodal Plots
pops up. In the Select Node List field, fill in 709, Check Von Mises and click
OK.
9. Switch back to Plotting mode in the Adams/PostProcessor, Set the Source to be
Result Sets; select gel_lower_control_arm_flex_Stress and component to
be node_709_Von_Mises. Your plot should look something like shown below.

Remarks
 The above example, demonstrates a simple use of applying a non standard
excitation to a suspension assembly. You could use an RPCIII file from test
data to actuate your suspension or use other Adams/View functions. An
example RPCIII file (roadprofile_lr_channels.drv) has been provided in the
shared car database with your Adams installation
(install_dir\acar\shared_car_database.cdb\loadcases.tbl).
 While animating or during plotting of the hot spots/stresses for the first time,
you may see a progress bar. This is showing the caching of the Flex Cache
Files for improving performance for future animation and post processing.

MD R2 Adams -7- December 2006