Study on influences of linkage geometry on actively controlled double wishbone suspension

The quarter-car model has been proven for its simplicity and effectiveness for analyses of vehicle suspension dynamics. The quarter-car model also often used to design the semi-active and active suspension controller. However, the conflicting dynamics performance of the vehicle suspension studied without considering the effects of suspension kinematics. This article presents the study on the linkage geometry influences on the actively controller double-wishbone suspension ride comfort performance. First, the equivalent stiffness and damping are derived and used to design the controller. Then, the dynamic responses of actively controlled double-wishbone suspension model was evaluated under harmonic and bump excitation for several linkage geometry cases. The result shows that geometry variation has significant effects of the passive suspension case and less significant for the active suspension case.