Virtual Development of Optimum Twist Beam Design Configuration for a New Generation Passenger Car

It is customary to select a twist beam rear suspension for front wheel driven small and medium range passenger cars. Besides better primary / secondary ride comfort, roll stiffness tuning ability, ease of assembly & good packaging solutions than the conventional semi trailing arm/ rigid axle suspensions, twist beam suspension system accentuate the concentration required in placing & orienting the cross beam to achieve certain imperative kinematical characteristics. In order to make the solutions of the required kinematical targets viable, it is vital to have the packaging space and stress concentration within yield limits given the weight & cost targets.

This paper presents the work done on twist beam type suspension for a new generation entry level B-Class hatchback vehicle developed.

To reduce the time consumed in validation of different design proposals a virtual validation process was developed. Various twist beam design proposals were analysed by the virtual validation process consisting of durability and kinematic analyses. Kinematic analyses were done using flexible model of twist beam in ADAMS View Environment (AVE). Durability Load Cases (DLCs) were derived using the Road Load Data (RLD) collected using a representative prototype. This was done to make sure that the structural component sustains the specified life in the targeted market. In twist beam structure, geometric non-linear effects are crucial in the strength evaluations. MSC-NASTRAN (MN) non-linear analysis capabilities were used for strength evaluation.