Experiments and CAE Analyses for Suspension under Durability Road Load Conditions

A finite element (FE) approach was conducted for suspension durability analysis with the aid of proving ground and rig tests. First, the displacement and acceleration of spindles were recorded during proving ground tests. The proving ground measurements were reproduced by generating the stroke signals of driving actuators of test rig in laboratory. The stroke histories of test rig are collected as durability road load database. These stroke histories were also used as input for an explicit FE code to capture dynamic behavior of vehicle under durability road load conditions. Comparing the results of experimental measurements and FE analyses, displacement and acceleration of FE results agree with those of proving ground tests. The magnitudes of strain histories from FE results also agree with those from experimental measurements without extra correlation effort. With the sufficient accuracy of FE results, fatigue analysis of suspension component can be conducted by CAE analysis. With collected road load database and this CAE durability approach, engineers can deliver a better durability analysis to examine suspension design early in the vehicle design process.