Design and Analysis of Suspension Test Rig

The automobile suspension system is intended to provide a good road holding characteristic to ensure maximum traction at all road conditions and a good ride comfort to the passengers by absorbing a part of the vibrations induced by the road profile. It is primary that the above two functions of the suspension system are satisfied and therefore during the design phase several simulations and testing are carried out extensively. Here, an attempt has been made to design and analysis of quarter car suspension test rig that can be used to study the behavior of a given suspension system for a given sprung mass in a dynamic environment. The test rig offers higher flexibility to incorporate different types of suspension systems at a lower cost. The test rig can induce the road profile and measure the system responses such as sprung and unsprung mass vibrations and the test rig can load external body forces such as aerodynamic forces and vehicle roll induced moment forces by using actuator acting over the sprung mass. The system design of the suspension system was performed using MATLAB Simulink environment. The structure of the test rig was built using CATIA V5 software and the same was analyzed in ANSYS Workbench. The test rig employs the use of hydraulic systems in order to actuate the quarter car system model.