Suspension Component Loading

[BTH]

Hey guys, I'm working on finalizing some A arm and upright designs. I've calculated the loads at the uppper/lower ball joints, spindle, etc using FBDs but I'm looking for some reading material that outlines the process so I can double check my work. I thought I saw a section in millikens book on the topic at one point but I can't seem to find it now. Anyone know of any resources that walks through the component load calculations based on assumed vehicle weight and max accelerations?

[exFSAE]

Your Statics textbook. That's all you need.

[BTH]

yea I already did that, made a real pretty set of spreadsheets too. Just wanted to double check myself...

[Silente]

I don't remember any book with any paragraph on the subject.

I once saw a paper from a FSAE team on the matter, but you would not find any real answer there in my opinion.

I think the best option for you would be to check your results with a commercial software you trust or with other guys doing the same job.

[RollingCamel]

Chassis Engineering Principles has good coverage on this matter.

I remember the SAE had some presentations about load pathway.

[BTH]

Originally posted by RollingCamel:
Chassis Engineering Principles has good coverage on this matter.

I remember the SAE had some presentations about load pathway.

Thanks RollinCamel, is this the book you mean? http://www.amazon.com/Automoti...ciples/dp/0768006570 (http://www.amazon.com/Automotive-Chassis-Engineering-Principles/dp/0768006570) just wanted to make sure since there are a couple with similar titles.

Silente, kinda thinking the same thing. Working on getting adams car up and running but haven't quite gotten there yet.

[BMH]

There is an SAE Paper that Lawrence Tech wrote that is ok but may be able to help you a little. I think its called "Design of Formula SAE Suspension Components." If you look hard enough on Google, I'm sure you can find it for free.

Another book that would help out is Caroll Smith's Tune to Win....Chapter 3 in particular. There are many other books that help as far as approximating the forces and such in the suspension components as well. If you have a good FEA or Simulation guy, you can find the forces that way as well.

[Nick Renold]

In excel, if you haven't already... put all of your unit vectors for the suspension components in a table, put the tension in each in a column on the left, and calculate the sum of forces and sum of moments to check that they are Zero. It's a great sanity check if nothing else. I actually use this and the Solver add-in to get quick results without having to load up MATLAB.

[RollingCamel]

@BTH

Yes this is the one. You don't really need Adams to simulate it, hand calculations and some scripts will help you.