Advanced parameter analysis for damper influence on ride dynamics

The conflicting objectives related to damping characteristics of vehicle suspensions promote further development of new damper concepts. The effort is no longer limited to finding the optimal damper velocity-force characteristics for a vehicle suspension system. Besides this basic design parameter, the amplitude- and frequency-dependent characteristics of dampers are also taken into consideration. The first step in adjustment of the velocity, displacement, and frequency-dependent damper characteristics is to understand the effect of these characteristics on the dynamics of the vehicle. Therefore, in this study, the interaction between the damper characteristics and vehicle ride response is analyzed by using a detailed mathematical damper model together with a verified full vehicle simulation model. A semi-parametric detailed damper model is first verified through physical testing of different dampers and then it is fully parameterized and implemented inside the full vehicle simulation model. A parameter variation analysis is performed to show the effect of the different damper characteristics on vehicle ride comfort.