Abstract
A new vehicle design considers a different set of suspension and BIW parameters. The vehicle height directly affects the suspension travel, spring preload, bumpstop clearance, and others. Therefore, the vehicle height is defined at the beggining of a project , and any modification leads to a new evaluation of the entire suspension and BIW structure. When a vehicle gets lowered, the suspension travel is reduced, higher loads are generated , and the suspension and BIW are responsible to absorb it. It affects the fatigue damage of all structures. Using a virtual load generation method, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of a lowered vehicle on its BIW. And using optimization techniques, re-design the suspension parameters in order to minimize the fatigue damage increase. Two vehicles of different dimensions, suspension topologies and weights are tested. The fatigue damage of the lowered version is compared with the actual project. Suspension parameters such as spring stiffness, bumpstop clearance, shock absorber force-velocity are optimized in order to minimize as much as feasible the fatigue damage impact. Session
