Kinematic and dynamic analysis of the McPherson suspension with a planar quarter-car model

Abstract McPherson suspension modelling poses a challenging problem due to its nonlinear asymmetric behaviour. The paper proposes a planar quarter-car analytical model that not only considers vertical motion of the sprung mass (chassis) but also: (i) rotation and translation for the unsprung mass (wheel assembly), (ii) wheel mass and its inertia moment about the longitudinal axis, and (iii) tyre damping and lateral deflection. This kinematic–dynamic model offers a solution to two important shortcomings of the conventional quarter-car model: it accounts for geometry and for tyre modelling. The paper offers a systematic development of the planar model as well as the complete set of mathematical equations. This analytical model can be suitable for fast computation in hardware-in-the-loop applications. Furthermore, a reproducible Simulink implementation is given. The model has been compared with a realistic Adams/View simulation to analyse dynamic behaviour for the jounce and rebound motion of the wheel and two relevant kinematic parameters: camber angle and track width variation. Keywords: suspensionmodellingMcPherson suspensionmultibody systemnonlinear modelsimulation Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by the Spanish Project DPI2011-22443. The first author's stay at the University of Málaga is funded by Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral.