SUSPENSION IN RACE CARS

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO SUSPENSION

When people think of automobile performance, they normally think of horsepower, torque and zero-to-60 acceleration. But all of the power generated by a piston engine is useless if the driver can't control the car. That's why automobile engineers turned their attention to the suspension system almost as soon as they had mastered the four-stroke internal combustion engine.

Before we go deep into our topic suspension, let us first know what do we mean by a suspension system. Suspension is the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels and allows relative motion between the two.

SUSPENSION IN RACE CARS

1.1 OBJECTIVES OF SUSPENSION SYSTEM:

It maximizes the friction between tyres and road surfaces to provide steering stability and good handling.

The irregularities on roads apply forces to the wheels. According to Newton's laws of motion, all forces have both magnitude and direction. A bump in the road causes the wheel to move up and down perpendicular to the road surface. The magnitude, of course, depends on whether the wheel is striking a giant bump or a tiny speck. Either way, the car wheel experiences a vertical acceleration as it passes over an imperfection.

Without an intervening structure, all of wheel's vertical energy is transferred to the frame, which moves in the same direction. In such a situation, the wheels can lose contact with the road completely. So suspension prevents this situation from occurring.

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Fig 1.1 Wheels under bump It ensures smooth ride over rough roads. Its main job is to convert kinetic energy into heat energy that is absorbed by the shock absorbers. Suspension absorbs the energy of the vertically accelerated wheel, allowing the frame and body to ride undisturbed while the wheels follow bums in the road.

Fig 1.2 over all view of suspension system

SUSPENSION IN RACE CARS

1.2 TYPES OF SUSPENSION SYSTEM:

1.2.1 DEPENDENT:

The suspension of one wheel is diretly affected by the suspension on the opposite wheel. It provide a rigid linkage between the two wheels of the same axle . Eg. Solid axle- The classic driven rigid rear axle, or so-called live axle, is supported and located by two leaf springs .This is a dependent suspension system, as the vertical movement of one wheel influences the other.

Fig 1.3 Solid axle

De dion- It uses universal joints at both the wheel hubs and differential. It uses a solid tubuler beam to hold the wheels parallel

Fig 1.4 De dion

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1.22 INDEPENDENT

It allows the wheels to rise and fall without affecting the opposite wheel. Eg. Macpherson, Double wishbone .

Fig 1.4 Double wishbone

Fig 1.5 MacPherson

The most commonly used suspension systems at present are1. MacPherson 2. Double wishbone
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MACPHERSON :

It comprises of a strut-type spring and a shock absorber combo, which pivots on a ball joint on the single lower arm. It is the most commonly used front suspension setup, seen in 90% of the modern road cars such as the Porsche 911, several Mercedes-Benz models and nearly all current BMWs.
DOUBLE WISHBONE :

It is an independent suspension design using two wishbone-shaped arms (called a-arms in USA & wishbones in UK) to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle. It is generally used in high performance road cars and Formula 1 cars

Fig 1.6 Mac Pherson

SUSPENSION IN RACE CARS

Fig 1.6 Double Wishbone

SUSPENSION IN RACE CARS

CHAPTER 2

COMPONENTS OF SUSPENSION SYSTEM

There are basically two components in suspension system. 2.1 SPRINGS :

A spring is an elastic device that resists movement in its direction of work. The force it exerts is proportional to the movement of one of its ends.
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Or to put this into a mathematical equation: Force = movement * spring constant. A high value for the spring constant makes for a stiff spring, and a low value makes for a soft spring. TYPES OF SPRINGS: 2.1.1 LEAF SPRING: Leaf springs are oldest springing medium . Leaf springs are still widely used in commercial vehicles as they are cheap, easy to manufacture and easy to replace. The leaf is connected to the chassis at both ends directly through its eyes .

Fig 2.1

2.1.2 RUBBER SPRING: Although rubber seems to be a perfect springing medium, and is light and easy to package, it never became successful because of the large motion ratios involved which needed heavily reinforced suspension components

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2.1.3 AIR SUSPENSION: Air enclosed in a cylinder fitted with a piston can also be used as a suspension medium. Under the static load, the air is compressed to a predetermined pressure, and subsequent motion of the piston either increases or decreases the pressure and consequently increases or decreases the force acting on the piston.Air springs are fairly widely employed on vehicles whose laden and unladen weights differ greatly, the latest railway coaches also use air springs.The disadvantages are high cost, complexity of compressed air ancillary system, and therefore risk of breakdown, more maintenance than other types of springing, and freezing of moisture in the air in cold weather, which can cause malfunction of valves.

Fig 2.2

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2.1.4 COIL SPRING: . The most common variety of springs are coil springs (see picture), these are usually placed around the damper housing to form a springdamper unit.

Fig 2.3 Coil Spring For progressive springs the spring constant will increase as the spring goes deeper into its travel, and for regressive springs it will decrease with travel. Most coil springs are slightly progressive, because as they compress, some of the coils start touching each other, especially near the top and the bottom, and hence the number of active coils decreases. Stiffer springs yield less grip, and conversely, softer springs yield more grip. This is because springs inhibit weight transfer, both front-torear and left-to-right: for the same cornering, acceleration or braking force a stiffer spring will compress less, resulting in less chassis movement and thus also less weight transfer, and a soft spring will compress a lot, resulting in a lot of weight transfer.

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Fig 2.4 Progressive Springs But, we wont always be able to use the spring we want: on small, high frequency bumps, stiff springs will make the car bounce, resulting in a loss of grip. So you need softer springs, because they allow the tires to stay in contact with the ground. On smooth tracks however, stiff springs are the way to go, they will also help the cars jumping ability and responsiveness. Coil springs may be directly connected to the wheels or may be actuated with the help of push/pull rods via bellcranks

Fig 2.5 Double wishbone with pull rod

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2.2 DAMPERS :

Damping is needed to absorb the energy associated with suspension travel. Bumps or lateral or longitudinal acceleration can induce that suspension travel. Without damping, the magnitude of the suspension movement would never stop increasing, leading to a very humorous situation. In terms of energy, damping absorbs most of the energy the car receives as it moves, unlike springs, which store the energy, and release it again. Dampers absorb all the excess energy, and allow the tires to stay in contact with the ground as much as possible. This also indicates that the damping should always be matched to the spring ratio.

Shock absorbers (dampers) perform two functions. They absorb any larger-than-average bumps in the road so that the upward velocity of the wheel over the bump isn't transmitted to the car chassis. Secondly, they keep our wheels planted on the road.

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Fig 2.6 Damper

2.3 WISHBONE ARMS:

The other component of suspension includes A-arms or wish bone arms wich are generally used in double wishbone suspension system. The wishbone suspension in race cars generally has unequal length suspension arms top and bottom in which the spring- damper system recides. If we make the upper link relatively shorter than the lower, we achieve some significant changes in the wheel paths. Now, in vertical travel, the upper link has a shorter radius than the lower which results in the wheel assuming a negative camber angle in both bump and either negative or positive camber droop. The amount of camber change is dependent upon the relative lengths of the upper and lower links-the shorter the upper link becomes, the steeper the camber change curve. The assumption of negative camber reduces the change in track dimension considerably and, with care, it can become insignificant.
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When the sprung mass rolls, the wheels are still forced into camber angles in the same direction as the chassis roll, but the positive camber assumed by the all important laden wheel is considerably reduced. Unfortunately, the negative camber of the unladen wheel is increased. Although the links are parallel to each other at ride height, the fact that they are unequal in length means that they will not remain parallel with vertical wheel movement (they almost do in roll) so the instantaneous swing arm length varies quite a bit. This means that, if the wheels are allowed to travel very much, the camber curves will become very steep indeed. If great gobs of wheel travel are requiredas in off-road racing-it is necessary to make the links closer to each other in length-try it on the model. At any rate, the roll center with unequal but parallel links stays pretty constant in relationship to the center of mass. Therefore the roll moment remains more or less constant, which is a good thing.

Fig 3.4 Unequal and parallel links

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CHAPTER 3

SUSPENSION PARAMETERS

3.1 CAMBER :

Camber describes the angle between the tyres centreline and the vertical plane. If the wheels of the car lean inwards, the camber angle is said to be negative, if they lean outward, the angle is said to be positive. It is usually measured at ride height, and angles of -0.5 to -3 are the most common.

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fig 3.1 Camber First of all, positive camber is never used, only negative. A slight negative camber in a turn maximizes the tire contact patch due to the way the tire deforms under lateral load. Hence, it is good to have some negative camber to increase cornering force.

Another reason why it is helpful to align your suspension with a slight negative camber is that camber will change with suspension travel and body roll. Most suspension systems are designed so that camber increases with more suspension travel. However, camber relative to the car's chassis is not the same thing as camber relative to the ground. It is camber relative to the ground that affects handling. Therefore, even though camber relative to the chassis is made to increase, camber relative to the ground may actually decrease on the outside wheels if there is substantial body roll. To counter this tendency, it is important to use negative camber and to control body roll.

The only drawback to negative camber is increased wear on the inside of each tire. Since the top of the wheel is leaned in, the car is riding on the
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inside of the tire while it is on straightaways. In a corner, suspension travel and lateral forces on the tires rubber compound combine to straighten the tire relative to the ground. Therefore, the car rides evenly on the tire in turns, which improves cornering ability. However, extra time spent driving on the inside of the tire causes that part of the tire to heat up and wear. This effect is small if you avoid adding too much negative camber.

On most street cars, camber is not easily adjustable. However, if you choose to purchase aftermarket camber plates, you can set camber to improve handling. More negative camber tends to increase tire grip in corners. Therefore, if your car experiences understeer, you can decrease front camber (make it more negative) to improve front grip or increase rear camber (make it more positive) to decrease rear grip. Remember not to add too much negative or positive camber since it will decrease the life of your tires and may cause a blowout. Even pure race cars rarely use more than about 3 degrees of camber.

3.2 CASTER :

Caster describes the angle between the steering axis (kingpin) and the vertical plane. In case of a double wishbone-type of suspension, the axis through the centres of the ball links serves as a 'virtual hinge pin'. If the kingpin is leaning back, as in the picture, the caster angle is said to be positive. Negative caster (kingpin leaning towards the front) is never used. Note that the contact

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patch between the tire and the ground is behind the intersection point of the extension of the kingpin and the earth. This will cause the wheels to 'trail'.

Fig 3.2 Caster Large caster settings increase the tendency of the front wheels to center themselves. This tendency is mainly due to the camber gain that occurs when the steering axis is tilted and the wheels are turned. Camber gain involved with caster is not easy to visualize. Think about the extreme case where the steering axis is tilted to the point where it is horizontal. When you turn the steering wheel, the front wheels would stand up on their edges. If you turn left, the left tire will stand on its outer edge, and the right tire will stand on its inner
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edge. If you turn right, the left tire will stand on its inner edge the right on its outer edge. The same type of camber gain, only on a smaller scale, takes place with less caster. This camber gain is exactly what you want in a corner. Read the previous section on camber to see what it is and why its beneficial.

When the tires stand up on their edges, the front of the car is actually raised up. This is why the wheels "center themselves" when you let go of the steering wheel. The weight of the car pushes the wheels flat on the ground, which resets the steering. This improves high-speed stability because it keeps the steering firmly in the center position. However, it is difficult to turn a car with a large caster setting because, while turning, you are actually lifting the front of the car with the steering. This effect is most visible in luxury sedans, where high-speed stability is important and sophisticated power steering makes up for the extra steering effort. If you watch one of these cars as the wheels turn to full lock (maximum steering angle), you will see the front end of the car rise slightly.

Increased caster is advantageous for racing and, in some cases, street driving. The only disadvantage is the added steering effort. While camber gain due to caster is generally good for increasing the grip of the front tires in a corner, too much camber gain will cause the tires to heat up, lose grip, and wear out prematurely. Therefore, do not use more than a few degrees of caster. If your car uses a MacPherson Strut suspension, it may be necessary to modify or install new strut tower mounts to be able to adjust caster.

3.3 KINGPIN INCLINATION :

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The angle in front elevation between the steering axis and the vertical is regarded as kingpin inclination . It is also known as steering axis inclination (SAI) and can be seen in Figure .

Fig 3.3 King pin inclination It is used to reduce the distance measured at the ground between steering axis and tyres centre of pressure in order to reduce the torque about the steering axis during forward motion. A right kingpin inclination will reduce the steering effort and will provide the driver with a good road feel.

4.4 SCRUB RADIUS :

Scrub radius is the distance measured at the ground between steering axis and tyres centre of pressure. It is considered positive when the steering axis intersects the ground to the inside of the wheel centerline. The
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amount of scrub radius should be kept small since it can cause excessive steering forces [5]. However, some positive scrub radius is desirable since it will provide feedback through the steering wheel for the driver . Scrub radius can be reduced with KPI by designing the steering axis so that it will intersect the ground plane closer to the wheel centerline. The drawback of excessive KPI, however, is that the outside wheel, when turned, cambers positively thereby pulling part of the tire off of the ground

3.5 TOE : Toe is an alignment parameter that describes how the front wheels are oriented with respect to each other and how the rear wheels are oriented with respect to each other. With the steering wheel centered, if the front wheels are pointing toward each other (from a top view), they have "toe-in" or are toed-in. If they are pointing away from each other, they are said to have "toe-out" or be toed-out. The same definitions apply for the rear wheels. Toe can be measured as an angle between the perfectly straight position of a wheel and its position after toe is adjusted. Toe can also be determined by finding the difference between the distance separating the front edges of the wheels and the distance separating the rear edges of the wheels. More distance between the front edges than the rear edges is toe-out. More distance between the rear edges than the front edges is toe-in.

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Fig 3.4 Toe Toe is used to change the way a car behaves on corner entry. The

more toe-in you have on a pair of wheels, the harder it is to make those wheels turn into a corner. The more toe-out you use, the easier it is to get that pair of wheels to turn into a corner.

Why does this happen? Let's take an example where a car with toe-in on the front wheels is about to enter a left turn. The driver begins to turn the wheel left. Now, the left-front tire is pointing only slightly to the left while the right-front tire is pointing much more to the left. The problem with this is that the left-front tire needs to turn with a greater angle than the right-front tire because the left-front tire is on the inside of the corner and, therefore, must trace an arc with a smaller radius than the outside tire. However, with toe-in, the leftfront tire is actually trying to trace a larger radius arc than the right-front tire. It is difficult to make the car turn because the left-front tire is fighting the rightfront. When the car is already in the turn, weight transfers to the right-front tire and diminishes the effect of the left-front tire. Because of this weight transfer, toe mainly affects corner entry.

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With toe-out, the inside tire in a corner turns with a greater angle than the outside tire (as it should). This improves the grip of the front tires on corner entry.

In addition to corner-entry handling, toe affects straight-line stability. Toe-in improves stability while toe-out worsens stability. This can be explained through the same reasoning as was used to describe corner-entry handling. Toe-out encourages turn-in since the inside tire turns at a greater angle than the outside. Hence, the car is sensitive to the slightest steering input. Toeout will make the car wander on the straightaways requiring corrective steering. The car will always be turning unless the steering is perfectly centered. With toe-in, the inside tire fights the outside since the inside is trying to trace a larger radius arc than the outside. As a result, toe-in discourages turn-in and makes the car less sensitive to steering input. In other words, it is more stable.

Let's consider an example of the straight-line stability concept. Assume you have toe-out on the rear wheels. You are traveling in a straight line when your right-rear tire hits a small bump. It gets pushed back slightly by the impact, and it is now pointing more to the right than the left-rear tire. Therefore, the back of the car turns to the right until the right rear suspension comes back to its original position. The same thing can occur with the front wheels. In fact, the effect on the front suspension is even worse because the right-front wheel getting pushed back, for instance, will also turn the left-front wheel to the right.

Rear toe is usually only adjusted on front-wheel drive cars or rear wheel drive cars with independent rear suspensions. I wanted to include this
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example just to show that rear toe can be adjusted just like front toe on many cars. With a front-wheel drive car, it is sometimes helpful to add some rear toeout to decrease the stability of the rear tires and counter the understeer inherent in front-wheel drive cars. For a rear-wheel drive car with independent rear suspension, the torque produced on the rear suspension when you step on the throttle tends to pull the rear wheels forward on the suspension pivots. This creates toe-in. To counter this effect, you can toe-out the rear wheels so they will become straight when you step on the throttle. I do not recommend this since rear toe-out in a rear-wheel drive car can cause severe oversteer. Instead of using toe-out, install aftermarket bushings and suspension links to keep the suspension from getting pulled forward under hard acceleration.

As you may have expected, toe increases tire wear because the tires are fighting each other and, therefore, scrubbing along the ground. Toein tends to increase tire wear on the outside edges of the tires. Toe-out tends to increase tire wear on the inside edges of the tires. Make sure that you consider your camber setting when adding toe-out. If you are using negative camber, you are already wearing the inside of the tires more than normal. The combination of excessive negative camber and toe-out can quickly wear the inside of a tire and cause it to fail.

3.6 ROLL CENTRE :

A roll centre is an imaginary point in space, look at it as the virtual hinge your car hinges around when its chassis rolls in a corner. It's as if the suspension components force the chassis to pivot around this point in space.
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The roll centre is also the only point in space where a force could be applied to the chassis that wouldnt make it roll. Roll centre can be defined as the intersection point of the lines between the tire contact patch and the instant centres of wheel travel

Fig 3.5 Roll centre Roll centre can be identified from this 2D front view. For parallel arms situation the roll centre is assumed to be at the ground. The main aim of the designer is to minimize roll centre migration.

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Now that we know where the roll centre (RC) is located, lets look at how it influences the handling of the car. Imagine a car, driving in a circle with a constant radius, at a constant speed. An inertial force is pulling the car away from the centre point, but because the car is dynamically balanced, there should be a force equal but opposite, pulling the car towards the centre point. This force is provided by the adhesion of the tires. If the total mass of the car is packed into one point in space, it is the CG. If the CG is determined correctly, both conditions should be perfectly equivalent. The forces generated by the tires can be combined to one force, working in the cars roll centre. Two equal, but opposite forces, not working in the same point generate a torque equal to the size of the two forces multiplied by the distance between them. So the bigger that distance, the more efficiently a given pair of forces can generate a torque onto the chassis. That distance is called the roll moment. Note that it is always the vertical distance between the CG and the RC, since the forces always work horizontally. This also explains why a vehicle with a high CG has a tendency to lean very far in a corner, and possibly tip over.

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Fig 3.6 Roll moment

3.6.1 ROLL CENTRE POSITION :

Once the basic parameters have been determined, the kinematics of the system can be resolved. Kinematic analysis includes instant centre analysis for both sets of wheels relative to the chassis and also for the chassis relative to the ground as shown in Figure. The points labeled IC are the instant centres for the wheels relative to the chassis. The other instant centre in Figure , the roll centre, is the point that the chassis pivots about relative to the ground. The front and rear roll centres define an axis that the chassis will pivot around during cornering. Since the CG is above the roll axis for most race cars, the inertia force associated with
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cornering creates a torque about the roll centre. This torque causes the chassis to roll towards the outside of the corner. Ideally, the amount of chassis roll would be small so that the springs and anti-roll bars used could be a lower stiffness for added tire compliance .

However, for a small overturning moment, the CG must be close to the roll axis. This placement would indicate that the roll center would have to be relatively high to be near the CG.

Unfortunately, if the roll center is anywhere above or below the ground plane, a jacking force will be applied to the chassis during cornering . For example, if the roll center is above ground, this jacking force causes the suspension to drop relative to the chassis. Suspension droop is usually undesirable since, depending on the suspension design, it can cause positive camber which can reduce the amount of tire on the ground.

Conversely, if the roll center is below the ground plane, the suspension goes into bump, or raises relative to the chassis, when lateral forces are applied to the tires.

Therefore, it is more desirable to have the roll center close to the ground plane to reduce the amount of chassis vertical movement due to lateral forces .

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Since the roll center is an instant center, it is important to remember that the roll center will move with suspension travel. Therefore, the design team must check the migration of the roll center to ensure that the jacking forces and overturning moments follow a relatively linear path for predictable handling . For example, if the roll center crosses the ground plane for any reason during cornering, then the wheels will raise or drop relative to the chassis which might cause inconsistent handling.

Fig 4.7 Roll axis

3.6.2 ROLL AXIS :

The position of the roll axis relative to the cars CG tells a lot about the cornering power of the car; it predicts how the car will react when taking a turn. If the roll axis is angled down towards the front, the front will roll deeper into its suspension travel than the rear, giving the car a nose down attitude in the corner. Because the rear roll moment is small relative to the front, the rear wont roll very far; hence the chassis will stay close to ride height.
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With the nose of the car low and the back up high, a bigger percentage of the cars weight will be supported by the front tires, more tire pressure means more grip, so the car will have a lot of grip in the front, making it oversteer. A roll axis that is angled down towards the rear will promote understeer. Remember that the position of the roll centres is a dynamic condition, so the roll axis can actually tilt when the car goes through bumps or takes a corner.

3.6.3 ANTI ROLL BARS :

By providing a link between the left and right side suspension, an anti-roll bar (AKA sway bar) keeps the left and right side of the suspension at nearly the same level vertically, decreasing body roll. Larger diameter sway bars make the suspension stiffer and transfer more weight to the end of the car where they are installed. If the car is understeering, you can increase rear sway bar diameter or decrease front sway bar diameter to restore balance. To correct oversteer with sway bars, it is necessary to install either a smaller rear

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Fig 3.8 Anti roll bars bar or a larger front bar. Most sway bars have adjustable links that can be used to effectively increase or decrease the stiffness of the sway bar without buying a new one.

Anti-roll bars should be chosen to match your springs. If you are planning on installing stiff springs, there is no need for a large diameter sway bar. The combination of stiff springs and small sway bars is enough to control body roll. Large diameter sway bars are necessary if you will be using relatively soft springs. This is a popular configuration since the ride is not overly harsh, but the suspension is still stiff and body roll is reduced due to the sway bars.

Soft springs with large sway bars and stiff springs with small sway bars accomplish virtually the same goal of providing a stable suspension and reducing excessive weight transfer. A stiff springs/small sway bars setup is generally better than soft springs/large sway bars because stiff springs reduce
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front-to-back weight transfer. With soft springs, side-to-side weight transfer is controlled by the sway bars, but there is a fair amount of front-to-back weight transfer due to the soft springs. In other words, using soft springs can result in brake dive and acceleration squat, which are detrimental to overall handling.

3.7 WHEELBASE AND TRACK WIDTH :

Wheel base is defined as the distance between the front and rear axle centerlines. A longer wheelbase provides a greater straight line stability, whereas a shorter wheelbase ensures better maneuverability. Longitudinal load transfer is inversely proportional to the wheelbase.

Trackwidth is the distance between the outer edge of the two opposite tires in the same axle. Front and rear track width are assumed, it is an important factor that resists overturning. Lateral load transfer is inversely proportional to trackwidth. Generally in race cars, the trackwidth of the front tires is less than that of rear tires. This is done for aerodynamic advantage.

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Fig 3.9 Wheelbase and trackwidth

The parameters that are generally used in F1 cars are given below.

Toe (normally Toe In 3 ~ 5 mm) Camber (normally 0.5 ~ 2) Caster (normally 2 ~ 4) Roll center height at design load (vis--vis CG) Kingpin inclination (normally 7 ~ 8)

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CHAPTER 4

INNOVATIONS

4.1 NITROX GAS DAMPERS:

A typical shock absorber or an hydraulic damper contains oil with two tubes sliding inside one another and also has a piston inside. It also has a valves inside. The oil inside the damper moves along the valves as the piston moves up and down to absorb the shocks. These dampers have a tendency for the oil to form foam (form bubbles) under heavy use. The foaming is usually caused by air bubbles inside oil. This is similar to shaking a can of oil. After shaking the oil inside the can gets foamed. Similarly the same case happens to a hydraulic damper also. This foaming temporarily reduces the damping ability of the unit.

Nitrox suspension used in Bajaj Pulsar In order to solve this, a secondary cylinder is connected to the shock absorber which acts as a reservoir for the oil and pressurized gas (nitrogen). The pressurized nitrogen gas inside the canister prevents foaming of hydraulic oil inside the damper due to heavy usage or damping
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action. Due to this, the performance of the suspension remains constant. This nitrogen gas also helps in absorbing the road undulations and provides a smooth ride for both the rider and the pillion. The new Bajaj Pulsar 200NS uses a Nitrox piggy-back type canister gas filled

These type of dampers provide better stability and also provides comfortable long rides to riders as the performance remains unchanged since the foaming never occurs. Typically, nitrogen at 30 to 300 psi is used because the oil would not combine (burn) with the nitrogen nearly as easily as it will with the oxygen in normal air.

Fig 4.1 Nitrox gas damper

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4.2 BOSE SUSPENSION:

Bose suspension is the biggest advance in automobile suspensiosince the introduction of an all-independent design. The Bose system uses a linear electromagnetic motor (LEM) at each wheel in lieu of a conventional shockand-spring setup. Amplifiers provide electricity to the motors in such a way that their power is regenerated with each compression of the system. The main benefit of the motors is that they are not limited by the inertia inherent in conventional fluid-based dampers. As a result, an LEM can extend and compress at a much greater speed, virtually eliminating all vibrations in the passenger cabin. The wheel's motion can be so finely controlled that the body of the car remains level regardless of what's happening at the wheel. The LEM can also counteract the body motion of the car while accelerating, braking and cornering, giving the driver a greater sense of control.

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REFERENCES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Allan Staniforth, Competition Car Suspension Caroll Smith , Tune To Win (1978), pg 41-59 C. Huges, Understanding Suspension Thomas D. Gillespie, Fundamentals Of Vehicle Dynamics, pg 237-274 www.howstuffworks.com/car-suspension.htm

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