Though the purpose of a vehicle's suspension is multi-faceted and complex, the fundamentals may be simply stated: the suspension exists to provide the occupants with a tolerable ride, while simultaneously ensuring that the tires maintain good contact with the ground. At the root of the familiar ride/handling compromise, is the problem that tuning efforts which improve either grip or handling are generally to the detriment of the other.
This study seeks to set forth a clear means for examining the familiar ride/handing compromise, by first exploring the key ideas of these terms, and then by describing the development of content-rich metrics to permit a direct optimization strategy.
For simplicity, the optimization problem was examined in a unilateral manner, where heave (vertical; z-axis) behaviour is examined in isolation, though the methods described herein may be extended to pitch and roll behaviour as well.