Design and Simulation of Bowman’s Suspension System using Amesim

Abstract

Bowman’s suspension system has been specially designed to provide good ride comfort and to reduce the effect of shocks. The design stabilizes the vehicle while driving. It increases resistance to body inclination. The angular movement of linkages helps while driving and emergency braking with high control precision. The horizontal movement of the springs helps to reduce the roll of the vehicle while accelerating and braking. Usually in a vehicle all forces act through the centre of gravity. While braking, due to change in inertia, tend to rotate the car forward and during acceleration make the car to rotate in the backward direction. To prevent this, the geometry of the system has been modified to reduce the rotation by applying an opposite force to the centre of gravity. The design helps to maximise the friction between the road and the tyre. Maintaining of Camber gain helps to maximise the contact area and grip of the tyre during cornering. During cornering, there is a transfer of the lateral load across the vehicle, which makes the car roll. To overcome this, camber gain has been controlled by an area of geometry of movement of springs in the horizontal direction. From various analyses conducted on the system, the results were promising and helped to prove the system meets all the necessary requirements of a good suspension system.