1.

0TITLE
Quarter Car Suspension System Modelling Ride Comfort Performance

2.0OBJECTIVE
To study the motion of quarter cars suspension system when hitting bump.

3.0SCOPE

To setup equipment and sensors on a cars suspension system for studying its behaviour

when hitting a bump

To build a quarter car suspension system modelling on Matlab Simulink
To plot and compare the acceleration of quarter car suspension system for both

theoretical Simulink modelling and experimental value

To validate the performance of quarter car suspension system

4.0LITERATURE REVIEW
Automotive suspension systems are designed with the objective of isolating the
vibrations produced because of road disturbances from being transferred to driver to ensure
the comfort of the passengers, provide steering ability with good handling, and maximize the
friction between the tires and the road surface. Shock absorption in automobile is an
important area of concern for the design engineers. Suspension system prevents shocks in
automobiles which may be because of irregular road profile, drag forces, drivetrain or
engine vibrations, wheel/tire non uniformity. Speed bumps and pot holes are the main cause
of vehicle body vibration through wheel/tire assembly and suspension system. Comfort of
passengers gets affected by overshoot and settling time of vehicle under vibration.
Full Car Suspension Model
Bounce occurs when the car goes over an imperfection in road such as pot holes,
extreme bumpy road and so on. It causes the sprung and the un-sprung mass undergo
displacement in its vertical height of the spring damper system. A full car suspension model
was developed. It is basically a 4 quarter cars models joined together to give a single output
which translates to a 4 input, 1 output model. In short, we can call that the quarter car model
is the basis of the full car model. Figure below show the full car suspension system models.

Figure 1: Model without roll and pitch motion

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Figure 2: Model with roll and pitch motion.

In these diagrams, the coefficient labels mirror those of Figures 1 and 2; for Figure 4,
represents the pitch angle of the car and represents the roll angle of the car. The values of
the parameters are taken from [2]. For Figure 3, the state equations may be deduced to be:-

Half Car Model

The half car model is one with sprung mass considered to be halved. Half car model
is of either roll degree of freedom or pitch degree of freedom. In Roll degree of freedom
when disturbance at left wheel of front axle is given then reaction on right wheel of front
axle is considered, similarly in case of pitch degree of freedom. The half car model is used
to investigate the dynamic response of cars with uncertainty under random road input
excitations. The mass of the vehicle body, mass moment of inertia of the vehicle body,
masses of the front / rear wheels, damping coefficient and spring stiffness of front / rear
suspension, distance of the front / rear suspensions location to the centre of the gravity of
the vehicle body and the stiffness of front / rear tires are considered as random variables.

There are two types of half car model viz, roll degree model and pitch degree of
suspension system with each four degree of freedom. Two degrees of freedom at unsprung
masses and two at sprung out of which one angular displacement is known as roll or pitch

Figure 3: A free-body diagram of the half-car model

Figure 1 illustrates the modelled characteristics of the half-car. The front and rear
suspension are modelled as spring/damper systems. A more detailed model would include a
tire model, and damper nonlinearities such as velocity-dependent damping (with greater
damping during rebound than compression). The vehicle body has pitch and bounce
degrees of freedom. They are represented in the model by four states: vertical
displacement, vertical velocity, pitch angular displacement, and pitch angular velocity. A
full model with six degrees of freedom can be implemented using vector algebra blocks to
perform axis transformations and force/displacement/velocity calculations. The front
suspension influences the bounce (i.e. vertical degree of freedom) according to Equation 1.
Equation 1

The pitch contribution to the front suspension is given by Equation 2.

Equation 2

Equation 3 contains expressions for the rear suspension.

Equation 3

The forces and moments result in body motion according to Newton's Second Law (see
Equation 4).
Equation 4

Figure 4: The Spring/Damper model used in Front Suspension and Rear Suspension subsystems

The spring/damper subsystem that models the front and rear suspensions is shown
in Figure 3. Right click on the Front/Rear Suspension block and select Mask > Look Under
Mask to see the front/rear suspension subsystem. The suspension subsystems are used to
model Equations 1-3. The equations are implemented directly in the Simulink diagram
through the straightforward use of Gain and Summation blocks.
The differences between front and rear are accounted for as follows. Because the
subsystem is a masked block, a different data set (L, K and C) can be entered for each
instance. Furthermore, L is thought of as the Cartesian coordinate x, being negative or
positive with respect to the origin, or center of gravity. Thus, Kf, Cf, and -Lf are used for
the front suspension block whereas Kr, Cr, and Lr are used for the rear suspension block.

Quarter Car Model

The quarter car model is set up using interconnections of masses,
springs and dampers. Figures 5 shows a passive quarter car suspension
system model. The passive system is the most used type in automobile suspensions. A
spring and a damper compose this suspension system, fixed between the wheel supporting
(unsprung mass) & the vehicle body (sprung mass). For passive suspension, reducing
effects of impulse forces requires the use of soft springs and moderate to low damping
rates, while reducing the effects of dynamic forces requires the use of stiff springs and high
damping rates. The component selection for the design of a passive suspension represents a
trade between ride comfort and dynamic performance. In the diagram, Ms is the
mass of the car body, Mus is the unsprung mass of the wheel and axle
assembly, ks is the spring constant in the suspension system, b s is the
dashpot constant (representing the shock absorber) and k t is the spring
constant of the tyre, r represents the road input force, x s represents the
force acting on the mass M s, and xus represents the force acting on the
mass Mus.

Figure 5:Quarter car model passive

For the passive quarter car model, the equations of motion may be
deduced to be:

Ms s = - ks(xs xus) bs(s - us)

Mus us = ks(xs xus) + bs(s - us) kt(xus r)

These equations give the following transfer function relating xs to r:

xs
k t (bs s +k s)
=
4
3
r M s M us s + ( M s+ M us ) b s s + ( ( M s + M us ) k s + M s k t ) s 2+ bs k t s+ k s k t

5.0METHODOLOGY
The experiment is conducted in two ways: first, using Matlab Simulink to construct a
quarter car suspension system modelling and get its theoretical data; second, using
accelerometer with Arduino installed on a real vehicle suspension system to record its
experimental data. Then, we can compare, analyse and comment on both Simulink
theoretical data and accelerometer experimental data.
As we were acknowledged that the experiment vehicle object will be Proton Persona
which using passive suspension system, hence the Matlab Simulink quarter car suspension
system modelling will also be passive suspension system. First and foremost a block
diagram was constructed manually to understand the flow of the suspension according to
the quarter car suspension model.

Figure 6: Quarter car suspension model

Interpret the equation of motion.For the passive quarter car model, the equations of motion
may be deduced to be:

mszs = -ks(zs-zus)-cs(zs-zus)
muszus = ks(zs-zus)+cs(zs-zus)-kt(zus-zr)
These equations give the following transfer function relating

zs

to r:
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zs
k t (c s s+ k s )
=
4
3
r ms mus s + ( ms +mus) c s s + ( ( ms +mus) k s +ms k t ) s 2+ c s k t s +k s k t
From the equation of motion, a block diagram in MATLAB Simulink was constructed
using few crucial blocks such as gain, scope, integrator and sum function.
The constructed Matlab Simulink model is shown as below:

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Figure 7: Theoretical Quarter Car Passive Suspension System Modelling

To experimentally determine the gravitational force acting on the suspension

parameters (damping and stiffness), a passenger car used (Proton Persona 1.6) at
University Technology Malaysia in the Automotive Laboratory. To determine the g-force
acting on a quarter car suspension, firstly the mass of the quarter car suspension to be
determine by using corner weight system. When the corner weight system used to only
calculate the front left of the car, the reading was higher than the true value. Therefore all
four side of the car fitted with the weight scale to obtain a correct reading at the front left.
The mass at the front were determined.
Next the sensors are to be checked using Arduino after confirming the sensors are
fully functional, it now ready to be fix at the car suspension (front left). All the sensors are
placed accordingly, one at the sprung mass and another one at the unsprung mass. The
sensors that must be placed on the sprung mass was easily fitted.

Figure 8: Sprung mass sensor

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Figure 9: Unsprung mass sensor

However, due to rusty surface the hot glue gum used to stick the sensor wasnt able
to hold the sensor. Therefore, the rusty surface was cleaned with sand paper to get a clear
metal surface. For the unsprung mass the whole car have to be lifted up to enable the fitting
process of the sensors. After placing the unsprung sensor at the bottom of the suspension,
the car is placed on the ground. To add, every sensor have 3 individual wires that
connected from the sensor to Arduino to enable to measure the g force clearly. Each wire
are at least 3 meters long and the wires are neatly placed on the car body with cellophane
tape to avoid any errors to occur during the experiment.

Figure 10: Wires from the sensors to the Arduino board

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A wooden block by dimension 8cm x 40 cm will be used in this experiment. The

wooden block is then brought to the road and placed horizontally. The positon the of the
wooden block were determined to ensure when the car hits the bump both of the tyres will
simultaneously hit the bump to avoid any inaccuracy in the measurement. One driver and
one operator of the Arduino was chosen among 5 of us. When the sensors are ready, the
driver is allowed to drive the car in a straight line at the same time maintaining the speed at
20 km/h.

Figure 11: Before experiment

After the car hits the bump, the data obtained from the Arduino were quickly saved in
Microsoft Excel. The experiment was carried out 6 times to obtain a consistent data.

Figure 12:Arduino Matlab Simulink Model

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6.0DATA AND RESULT

A total number of 6 trials has been made to gather the data of acceleration for both
sprung mass and unsprung mass over time with interval of 0.01s when hitting bump. On
the other hand, the following parameters are used in the simulation of quarter car
suspension modelling:
Sprung mass, Ms = 293 kg
Unsprung mass, Mus = 73 kg
Spring constant of suspension system, Ks = 10000 N/m
Spring constant of wheel and tire, Kt = 290000 N/m
Damping constant of suspension system, Cs = 2000 Ns/m
The result of trials are plotted overlaying with simulation result for easier comparison. We
randomly choose 3 out of 6 trials, which are 1 st trial, 5th trial and 6th trial, to plot the graphs
of sprung mass acceleration against time and also unsprung mass acceleration against time.

Figure 13: Graph of Sprung Mass Acceleration versus Time (1st trial)

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Figure 14: Graph of Sprung Mass Acceleration versus Time (5th trial)

Figure 15: Graph of Sprung Mass Acceleration versus Time (6th trial)
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Figure 16: Graph of Unsprung Mass Acceleration versus Time (1st trial)

Figure 17: Graph of Unsprung Mass Acceleration versus Time (5th trial)
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Figure 18: Graph of Unsprung Mass Acceleration versus Time (6th trial)
The purple-coloured line represents the theoretical value from Matlab Simulink
quarter car suspension modelling simulation while the yellow-coloured line represents the
experimental value from the accelerometer and Arduino device. Sprung mass graph will be
our main concern due to the studying of suspension performance, not the wheel itself.
From the graphs of sprung mass acceleration versus time for all 3 trials, the
experimental acceleration values are very close to the theoretical simulation value. For the
simulation theoretical value, right after the quarter car hits bump at t = 0.11s, the car body
(sprung mass) experiences a positive peak vertical acceleration of approximately 25 m/s 2 at
t = 0.13s, follow by negative acceleration until -33 m/s2 at t = 0.2s when the wheel drops at
the end of bump, then the body will experience some oscillation before return steady state.
For the 1st trial, the sprung mass reached its positive peak acceleration of 19.4 m/s 2 at t
= 0.16s and maximum negative acceleration of -13.4 m/s 2 at t = 0.27s. For the 5 th trial data,
the positive peak acceleration is 20.5 m/s2 at t = 0.15s and its maximum negative
acceleration is -16.7 m/s2 at t = 0.22s. While for the final 6th trial, positive peak acceleration
of 23.8 m/s2 is recorded at t = 0.16s, and its maximum negative acceleration value is -12.5
m/s2 at t = 0.22s.
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7.0DISCUSSION
From the graphs of sprung mass acceleration versus time for all 3 trials, the
experimental acceleration values could be said as close to the theoretical simulation values
even though there are certain obvious differences. One of the difference is that
experimental acceleration tends to response slower that theoretical Simulink model. This is
due to the fact in real experiment situation, a full car is used although sensors were only
attached at the front left suspension, which causing relative motion transfer to happen
between front end and rear end of the car, hence the difference of responsiveness. Besides,
it is also worth to mention that the fluctuating acceleration happened between t = 0.45s and
t = 1 s were caused by the braking effect of vehicle after hitting the bump.
From the graphs of unsprung mass acceleration versus time for all trials, there are
huge difference between experimental acceleration and theoretical acceleration. The
experimental unsprung mass acceleration only achieved peak value of approximately 3.5g
(equivalent to 34 m/s2) while the theoretical reached up to 320 m/s 2. One of the reason
caused this error is that in theoretical quarter car modelling, only the quarter car part was
solely put in consideration to the motion of hitting bump, hence more freely to experience
higher amplitude of motion when hitting bump. On the other hand, in real experiment case,
even though we only use quarter car suspension as our study case, still the car has to hitting
the bump, which the whole body frame of vehicle, including its weight will give effect to
limit the amplitude motion of front suspension system.
Based on the result obtained, we can observe that there are differences between
theoretical and experimental value. This happen due to the error occurs during the
experiment. The error happened can be divided in to two categories which are systematic
error and random error. For systematic error, we can say that the error occur because of the
measuring instrument used in the experiment. This error can lead to decrease in accuracy.
Systematic errors consist of zero error and incorrect calibration of the instrument used in
the experiment. In this experiment, the software that supposed to be used is not updated
and out of license. The sensor equipped for the software is very sensitive and precise in
taking the reading. In order to overcome this problem we decided to replace it with 3-axis
accelerometer that connected with the open source Arduino software which transfers the
data of the vertical displacement of the sprung and unsprung mass obtained during the
experiment.
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Besides that, there are some other causes that bring the differences between
theoretical and experimental value and one of them is the set-up position of the
accelerometer. The location of the accelerometer supposed to be at top and the bottom of
the car suspension spring which is at the mounting of the absorber and at the bottom of the
spring coil. We didnt manage to replace the older sensor with the new sensor at the same
location. The tool that we used to attach the sensor is only the hot glue gun. The hot glue
gun maybe effective in patching the sensor but the surface of the gummed location may not
be horizontal as the datum is. This may slightly vary our data reading. Other than that, road
surface also one of the main result that cause our result to be difference with the ideal ride
and comfort condition developed by the MATLAB Simulink. The road surface in the ideal
condition is assumed to be smooth and flat but in reality the pavement of the road is very
rough. The road tar is not flat and the data interpret from the computer show a slight
vibration result from the uneven road surface.
In other hand, the position of the wood bump is also the factor that causes errors in
data. The position of the bump is not consistent. Let us say that the wood bump is parallel
aligned with both right and left tires. When the car hit the bump, both right and left tires
will move upward along the wood bump simultaneously which giving us the best result
desired. But if the position of the wood bump is not parallel with both front tires, the result
obtained will not precise and inaccurate because of the differences in time of spring
compression and expansion phenomenon. In addition, the mistake that weve done is
manipulating the driver for the car. Changing the driver for the car does affect our result
slightly. This is because the difference in weight for each person will change the value of
sprung mass for the car during the experiment. However, this can be neglected since it only
contributes to the result in a small amount.
On the other hand, the result maybe vary due to the speed of the car during it hit the
wood bump. The speed drove by each driver is not constant and precise but its within the
range of 20 22 km/h. This may slightly affect our reading interpreted by Arduino. Last
but not least, the air pressure of the tire during the experiment. The air pressure in the tires
act as a damper for the suspension system. If its too low the movement of the spring will
be exaggerated and if its too high the spring will less capable to extend and compress. The
normal pressure for car tires is around 200 kpa 220 kpa.

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8.0CONCLUSION
9.0 From the experiment, we study that the quarter cars suspension produce a
pattern of motion when hitting the bump and reveals important correlation among the
factors related to ride comfort performance. It is observed that there are various factor can
affect the suspension motion which shows the ability of the suspension to provide a good
ride comfort and less head displacement. The study shows that the suspension oscillate
with great displacement so it considered as good suspension to provide comfort to the
driver when hitting bump with spring constant of suspension system, Ks=10000 N/m,
spring constant of wheel and tire, Kt=290000 N/m and damping constant of suspension
system, Cs= 2000 Ns/m.

10.0 We used MATLAB Simulink to get the ideal suspension behaviour and
compared it with the experiment result. The graph pattern of sprung mass acceleration
against time and also unsprung mass acceleration against time obtained from experiment
graph barely the same as the theoretical graph due to some error that may occur during
experiment being carried out. From the graph, the experiment graph pattern seems uneven
and slow to settle down rather than theoretical graph pattern. It shows that there are some
factors we should take into account to get a better result. However in this experiment we
have ignored some important factors due to some reason that restrict us.

11.0 Based on the experiment, we can concluded that the combination of spring(s)
and damper(s) as vehicles suspension system at correct spring and damper constants are
crucial to absorb the sudden vertical amplitude and acceleration due to hitting bump. It is
important to ensure the vehicle suspension system are in good state to perform well in
order to provide a comfortable ride for the drivers and passengers.

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12.0 RECOMMENDATION
13.0

There are certain recommendation that we suggest to do in order to

minimize the error and obtained the best result approximately matching the ideal condition
of ride and comfort. There so many precaution that we need to take serious about in order
to avoid error and the most important steps to take in this experiment is to use the suitable
and more sensitive sensor and software rather than using the accelerometer and the
Arduino. The location of the accelerometer must replace the location of the older sensor.
Furthermore, the hot glue gun can be replace by cable tight which gives the sensor more
rigid and flat surface.

14.0

Other than that, one of the suggestions to make sure that the data match

the ideal case is to run the experiment inside a laboratory which has a rigid and flat surface
replacing the road surface. This will minimize the vibration that the suspension system
receives when it moves with certain speed. The position of the wood bump plays a huge
role in maintaining the precision of our reading. The position of the wood bump must be
parallel with the car tires. In order to make this happen, the wood bump must be pinned on
the road hence it will not move in random ways after the car hit it at 20 km/h.

15.0

In addition, the changes in driver may affect the value of sprung mass

since there are differences in weight between each driver. This will inefficiently reduce the
accuracy of our reading. This can be avoid by fixing the person that drive the car and the
data keeper inside the car. Besides that, the variation speed of the car also gives us bad
result to be compared to the ideal case. The car must start moving at certain distance in
order to maintain its speed at 20 km/h. A marker must be set on the road as a start line for
the car before its accelerate to 20 km/h. Last but not least is to make sure that the level of
pressure is suitable to run this experiment. The ideal pressure level for car is 200 kpa 220
kpa. The car tires air pressure must be check before the experiment run.

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16.0REFERENCE
[1] Prof. S. P. Chavan, Prof. S. H. Sawant, Dr. J. A. Tamboli, Experimental Verification of
Passive Quarter Car Vehicle Dynamic System Subjected to Harmonic Road Excitation
with Nonlinear Parameters., IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, 3945, ISSN 2778-1684. (2012)
[2] Sharma. P., Saluja N., Saini D., and Saini P., Analysis of Automotive Passive
Suspension System with Matlab Program Generation, International Journal of
Advancements in Technology, Vol.4 (2), pp. 115-119, ISSN 0976-4860. (July 2013)
[3] Suresh A. Patil and Shridhar G, Joshi, Experimental analysis of 2 DOF quarter-car
passive and hydraulic active suspension system for ride comfort, Systems Science &
Control Engineering: An Open Access Journal, Vol.2, pp. 621-631. ISSN 2164-2583.
(Oct 2014)
[4] Hassaan G. A., Car Dynamics using Quarter Model and Passive Suspension, Part I:
Effect of Suspension Damping and Car Speed, International Journal of Computer
Techniques, Vol.1 (2), ISSN 2394-2231. (2014)
[5] Tiwari P., Dr Mishra G. R., Simulation of Quarter Car Model, IOSR Journal of
Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Vol. 11 (2) ver.3, pp. 85-88. (Apr 2014)
[6] Faheem A., Alam F. and Thomas V., The Suspension Dynamic Analysis For A Quarter
Car Model And Half Car Model, 3rd BSME-ASME International Conference on
Thermal Engineering. (Dec 2006)
[7] Sawant S. H., Belwalkar M. V., Kamble M. A., Khot. P. B., and Patil D., Vibrational
Analysis of Quarter Car Vehicle Dynamic System Subjected To Harmonic Excitation By
Road Surface, International Journal of Instrumentation, Control and Automation, Vol.1,
Iss-3,4, ISSN 2231-1890. (2012)
[8] Wallaschek, J, Dynamics of non-linear automobile shock-absorbers, International
Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics. (1990)
[9] Verros, G., Natsiavas, S., and Stepan, G., Control and dynamics of quarter-car models
with dual-rate damping, Journal of Vibration and Control. (2000)

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