Simulation Applied to Ride Comfort Suspension Optimization

Traditional suspension tuning for ride comfort takes use of a series of physical prototype evaluations by skilled drivers, who analyze the vehicle performance in subjective terms. In this approach, the suspension components (springs, shock absorbers, bumpers, etc) are usually optimized one at a time, regardless of the consequences of the interactions among them in the global suspension behavior – this not uncommonly leads to sub optimized suspension configurations. Another problem with this approach is the fact that it is completely dependent upon physical component prototypes, whose costs and construction lead times can not be afforded in the current tight development cycles. This paper presents an objective approach that has been successfully applied at GMB, based on simulation tools, whose target is to define optimized components for the suspension without the need of physical prototypes. It takes use of a vehicle dynamics simulation tool, used to analyze the vehicle behavior in different road conditions for the parameters of interest and an optimization tool based on the robust engineering method. Finally, examples of the usage of this tool at GMB with correlation results to the final vehicles are shown.