Effect of Steering-Housing Rubber Bushings on the Handling Responses of a Vehicle

An investigation of the effect of rack-housing rubber bushings on the handling characteristics of a vehicle is presented using a sophisticated three-dimensional vehicle model based on multibody dynamic analysis method. Previous research on this problem has been limited to a transfer function model for a simplified one- or two-dimensional steering subsystem. This paper uses a multibody modeling approach to find the effects of the steering-system compliance on the complete vehicle system. Sample simulations for circular cornering and pulse steering show that the steering-system compliance is the source of the frequency peak in the yaw rate to hand-wheel angle response function.