Topological synthesis of a novel parallel mechanism for vehicle rear suspensions

Abstract

This work deals with the topological synthesis of a novel parallel mechanism to be employed in vehicle rear suspensions to improve the overall stability. The approach followed here considers the design of an active rear suspension, with three degrees of freedom, able to adjust the camber, toe and roll angles simultaneously. By applying two distinct methods to perform the topological synthesis, several architecture candidates are generated that satisfy the design specifications. Then, the synthesized candidates are ranked according to some proposed indexes and the most promising topology is selected. In order to evaluate the capability of the parallel mechanism to improve the vehicle dynamic behaviour, numerical simulations are conducted to compare it with a similar vehicle equipped with a conventional suspension system. The obtained results have shown that, in double lane change maneuvers, the novel parallel mechanism is able to reduce not only the yaw rate but also the roll angle. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014.