SUSPENSION

AND STEERING
DEPARTMENT
 WHAT IS SUSPENSION?
▪ Suspension is a system of tyres, tyre air, springs, shock
absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its
wheels and allows relative motion between them.

▪ Also, it can be defined as the system of springs and shock

absorbers by which a vehicle is supported on its wheels.
WHY DOES A VEHICLE NEED SUSPENSIONSYSTEM ?
CONTROL COMFORT CONTACT

Provide Steering control A comfortable ride Keeping the wheel in

under all road conditions is Possible which is contact with the road
Suspension control the provided by the surface as much as
excess tilting of body at the suspension by absorbing possible so that
time of braking and the road shocks. control the rolling of
accelerating condition. It vehicle.
also control the
rolling of body.
 TYPES OF SUSPENSION SYSTEM
According to the effect of suspension on wheel
▪ Dependent suspension system
▪ Independent suspension system
▪ Semi-Independent suspension system
According to the Type of Actuator
▪ Active suspension
▪ Passive suspension
DEPENDENT SUSPENSION SYSTEM :-
It doesn’t allow each wheel on the same
axle to move vertically independent of
each other.
Ex- Live axle suspension

INDEPENDENT SUSPENSION SYSTEM :-

It allows each wheel on the same axle to
move vertically independent of each
other.( i.e When one wheel is moving over a bump
the another wheel on Same axle is not
affected.)
Ex-Double wishbone suspension ,
SEMI-INDEPENDENT SUSPENSION SYSTEM :-
In this case the motion of one wheel does affect the
position of the other but
they are not rigidly attached to each other.
Ex-Twist beam rear suspension

ACTIVE SUSPENSION :-
The suspension system which is electrically actuated
by the ECU (Electrical control unit) is known as
active suspension.

PASSIVE SUSPENSION :-
The suspension system which is mostly used in most
of the vehicle and mechanically actuated is known as
passive suspension.
SPRINGS :-
Springs are mounted at each wheel and they absorb the
road shocks created
when the vehicle travels over bumps or potholes.
They are of various types:-
1. Leaf springs
2. Coil springs
3. Air springs

COIL SPRINGS :-
• This is the most common type of spring.
• Coil springs compress and expand to absorb
the. motion of the wheels. This spring works
on the principle of twisting.
• Coil springs are lightweight. Coil springs are
unexpectedly light for the power they offer.
LEAF SPRINGS :-
▪ This type of spring consists of several layers of metal (called
"leaves") bound together to act as a single unit . Leaves are
separated by means of insulating material in order to
increase life time.
▪ They are used today on most trucks and heavy-duty vehicles

SHOCK ABSORBER :-
▪ These are mechanical or hydraulic devices used to absorb
shocks when the springs fluctuates.
▪ Shock absorber is also known as Damper.
▪ So in order to damp the repeated oscillation of the spring
and to provide a smooth ride damper is connected.
DOUBLE WISHBONE SUSPENSION
[ A-ARM SUSPENSION ]

▪ A double wishbone or A-arm or control arm suspension system is an

independent suspension system design using two wishbone –shaped
arms to locate the wheel.
▪ Each wishbone has 2 joints to chassis and 1 to the knuckle.
▪ The different parameters that can be controlled are camber, caster,
toe, roll centre height; etc.
▪ Advantages:-
▪ Easy to adjust wheel alignment angles.
▪ Offers drivers a smoother driving experience,
especially on bumpy roads

▪ Disadvantage:-
▪ Relatively heavier.
▪ Require more space
H-ARM SUSPENSION :-
It is of H-shaped where one end
of the arm is connected to two
location of the chassis and
another connects to two location
of knuckle and is widely used in
rear suspension since
they don’t need to steered.
WEIGHTS :-

Sprung weight: Un-sprung weight:

The portion of vehicle’s total mass The mass of suspension, wheel and other
supported components directly connected to chassis,
by the suspension. rather
It consists of – than supported by the suspension.
1. Body and Frame It consists of –
2. Engine and Transmission 1. Wheel and Tyres
3. Load or Cargo 2. Wheel bearings and hubs
4. Fuel Tank 3. Axles and steering knuckles
4. Wheel mounted brake components
Different kinds of wheel alignment & Terms
used in suspension and wheel assembly:
• Camber Angle
• Caster Angle
• Toe Angle
• Kingpin Angle
• Scrub Radius
• Trackwidth
• Wheelbase
• Instant-center and roll-center

CAMBER ANGLE :-
▪ Inward or outward tilt of wheel and tyre when viewed
from the front of the vehicle.
▪ Affects Tyre wear.
CASTER ANGLE :-

▪ Forward or rearward inclination of steering axis.

▪ It is the angle between the steering axis (in a car an
imaginary line that runs through the center of the upper
ball joint to the center of the lower ball joint) and
vertical.
Ex :- In most of the two-wheeler positive caster is used
(steering axis is towards the driver)

TOE ANGLE :-

▪ Inward or outward variation of tyres from top view.

▪ The toe angle is the direction the tires are pointed, in
relation to the vehicle centreline, viewed from above.
KINGPIN ANGLE :-
▪ The line between two pivot points of a wheel is called
kingpin axis. This axis is also known as steering axis.
▪ The angle between kingpin axis with vertical is kingpin
angle, viewed from front view

SCRUB OR SCRUB RADIUS :-

The distance from the centre of the tire print/ tire’s contact
patch to the axle centre is called Scrub or Scrub radius.
They are of 3 types:
▪ Positive :- If at contact patch steering axis intersect in
+ve direction to vertical axis.
▪ Negative :- If at contact patch steering axis intersect in –
ve direction to vertical axis.
▪ Zero :- if kingpin axis intersect with vertical
at contact patch.
ROLL CENTRE AND INSTANT CENTRE :-

▪ The roll centre of a vehicle is the point at which

the cornering forces in the suspension are
reacted to body.
▪ The lateral location of roll centre is typically at
centre line of the vehicle when the suspension
on the left and right sides of car are mirror
images of each other.
▪ When the vehicle experiences angular
acceleration due to cornering, the size of the
moment arm, combined with the stiffness of
spring and anti-roll bars, dictates how much the
vehicle will roll.
Movements & Motions Jounce
and Rebound :-
▪ Jounce is the upward movement or compression
of suspension components.
▪ Rebound is the downward movement or
extension of suspension components.
▪ Pitch is a shift in your vehicle's weight forwards or
backwards. When it happens, the weight is
moving from one end of the vehicle to the other -
from the back to the front or from the front to
the back. When you brake, it causes a drop in the
front end in your car and lifts the rear end.
▪ In simple word it is the rotation of vehicle about
transverse axis.
▪ Yaw happens when the weight of your vehicle
shifts from its center of gravity to the left or the
right. It is the rotation of vehicle
about vertical axis.
SUSPENSION GEOMETRY :-
▪ Push-rod or pull-rod, the difference as the name
suggests is the whether the rod push up to the rocker
or pull down to the rocker.
▪ The main advantage of a pull rod lie in the possibility
to make the nose lower, assemble most suspension
parts lower to the ground and thus lowering the
height of the centre of gravity.
▪ Pull rod set up has a strut from the outer end of the
upper wishbones that runs diagonally to the lower
edge of the chassis and "pulls" a rocker to operate the
spring/damper.
▪ Pull rod provides a better stability as it lowers the
COG.
▪ A push rod is the opposite; the strut runs from the
lower wish bone to the upper edge of the chassis.
▪ Push rod suspension provide stiffness to the wheel so
resist the skidding.
Steering : Essential for driving
▪ Purpose of steering: allow the driver to manoeuvre the vehicle.
▪ Basic Mechanism: The steering system converts the rotation of the steering wheel into a swivelling
movement of the car wheels.
▪ The driver uses light forces to steer the heavy vehicle. If the driver swivelled the road wheel directly,
he or she would have to push nearly 16 times as hard.
▪ The steering effort passes to the wheels through a system of pivoted joints which in combination
provide swivelling motion.
▪ They also ensure that when cornering, the inner front wheel - which has to travel round a tighter
curve than the outer one - becomes more sharply angled
 Basic components in steering system Steering wheel
A steering wheel Rack & Pinion Universal Joint
(also called a driving The gear mesh used to A Universal Joint is a joint or
wheel or a handwheel) is change direction coupling
the steering control in according to that connects rigid rods whose axes
vehicles. movement of steering are bent to each other and are
wheel. commonly used in shafts that
transmits rotary motion.
Tie Rods Steering Arm Steering Column
The tie rods allow an It is the final part of a steering Assembly containing the
element of adjustability in setup that pushes or pulls steering shaft, steering
the steering geometry. The upright in order to gain wheel, the turn signal
tie rod lengths can directional control over the front mechanism and the
normally be changed to wheels. related wirings.
achieve these different
geometries.
Steering system Design: Rack and
Pinion type
▪ Rack-and-pinion steering is the most common type of
steering on cars, small trucks and SUVs due to it's
relative simplicity and low cost.
▪ At the base of the steering column, a universal joint
allows it to connect with the rack without angling the
steering wheel awkwardly sideways. In a rack and pinion
system, the steering rack which is a long, toothed bar
with the tie rods attached to each end.
▪ On the end of the steering shaft there is a simple pinion
gear that meshes with the rack. When the steering
wheel is turned, the pinion gear turns. And moves the
rack from left to right
The rack-and-pinion gear set has two purposes :
o It converts the circular motion of the steering wheel
into the linear motion needed to turn the vehicle’s
wheels.
o It creates a gear reduction, which makes it easier
to turn the wheels

STEERING GEOMETRY
Steering geometry is the geometric arrangement of the
parts of
a steering system, Types:
o Ackermann geometry
o Parallel geometry
o Anti Ackermann Geometry
ACKERMANN GEOMETRY :-
▪ The Ackerman Steering Principle defines the geometry that is
applied to all vehicles to enable the correct turning angle of
the steering wheels to be generated when negotiating a
corner or a curve.
▪ It enables the inner wheel to exhibit a higher angle turn
than the outer wheel while taking a turn.
▪ The intention of Ackermann geometry is to avoid the need
for tyres to slip sideways when following the path around a
curve.
▪ The geometrical solution to this is for all wheels to have their
axles arranged as radii of circles with a common centre
point.
▪ As the rear wheels are fixed, this centre point must be on a
line extended from the rear axle. Intersecting the axes of the
front wheels on this line as well requires that the inside front
wheel is turned, when steering, through a greater angle than
the outside Wheel.
Advantages of Ackermann Geometry
▪ Simple geometry and ease of calculations.
▪ Avoids front tire slippage and helps in achieving pure
rolling.
▪ Easy to fabricate.
▪ Takes minimum space.

PARALLEL GEOMETRY :-
Parallel steering means that the front wheels
turn through an identical angle when turning.
This essentially means that the Ackermann
angle is zero.
ANTI ACKERMANN STEERING :-
▪ Reverse Ackermann steering is employed in
sports and race cars, where the wheels have
to respond immediately as the steering
wheel exhibits a slighter degree of turn and
if the radius of rotation is reduced, the
vehicle will exhibit a turn as soon as
possible.
▪ It enables the outer wheel to exhibit a higher
angle turn than the inner wheel
while taking a turn
Need for Anti Ackermann steering

The Ackermann steering is efficient and widely used in the

commercial and domestic
vehicles and if it is implemented in the high speed vehicles it is
found to have the following constraints:

o Understeer – this occurs when the car steers less than

(under) the amount commanded by the driver.

o Radius of rotation– the Ackermann steering exhibits a larger

radius of rotation.

o Response time is less

 Basic differences between Ackermann
and Anti Ackermann geometries
▪ In Ackerman steering the outside wheel turns less than the inside
wheel while in anti-Ackerman, the outside wheel turns more than
the inside wheel during cornering.
▪ Anti-Ackerman geometry is employed in “high speed” vehicles
where in during cornering a lot of weight shifts to the outer tyre,
thus a higher slip angle and the inner tyre tends to loose its grip.
▪ While in “low speed” vehicles Ackerman steering geometry, there
is not a significant dynamic weight transfer on the outer wheels
during cornering and the inner wheel has a firm grip on the ground
Vehicle handling problems related to steering :-
Understeer : Understeer is so called because
the car steers less than wanted. Understeer
can be brought on by all manner of chassis,
suspension and speed issues but essentially it
means that the car is losing grip on the front
wheels.
Oversteer : With oversteer, the car goes
where it's pointed far too efficiently and the
car ends up diving into the corner much more
quickly than expected. Oversteer is brought
on by the car losing grip on the rear wheels,
resulting in the rear kicking out in the corner.
Other important concepts
Steering ratio :
Steering ratio is the ratio of the number of degrees turned at the steering wheel vs.
the number of degrees the front wheels are deflected.
For example,
if the steering wheel is turned 20° and the front wheels
only turn 1°, that gives a steering ratio of 20:1.
Slip angle :
Slip angle is the angle between the direction of car heading/travel and direction of
wheel heading/travel. When we turn the car wheels using a steering wheel, the car is
moving in a certain direction while the wheels are placed at a certain angle and try to
move in that direction.
Bump steer:
It is the undesirable change in the wheel
alignment (toe angle) in bumps or droops
without any steering input
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