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Conventional EPS (Electric Power Steering) systems are operated by one type of steering tuning map set by steering test drivers before being released to customers. That is, the steering efforts can't change in many different driving conditions such as road conditions (low mu, high mu and unpaved roads) or some specific driving conditions (sudden stopping, entering into EPS failure modes and full accelerating). Those conditions can't give drivers consistent steering efforts. This paper approached the new concept technology detecting those conditions by using vehicle and EPS sensors such as tire wheel speeds, vehicle speed, steering angle, steering torque, steering speed and so on. After detecting those conditions and judging what the best steering efforts for safe vehicle driving are, EPS systems automatically can be changed with the steering friction level and selection of steering optimized mapping on several conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and reduce a knocking noise from a rear suspension. First, the characteristics of a knocking noise are analyzed experimentally in the frequency domain. It was found that the knocking noise of a passenger room and vibration at a lower arm, a subframe and a floor are strongly correlated. Second, the knocking noise sensitivity is strongly dependent on suspension dynamics characteristics. Moreover, the improvement of ride comfort and noise was achieved simultaneously based on simulation analysis, principle vehicle testing. A design parameter study shows that the trailing arm bush stiffness, shock absorber bump/rebound damping characteristics, floor stiffness and shock absorber insulator bushing are one of the most sensitive parameter to affect the suspension knocking noise. Finally, this paper shows how the suspension knocking noise and ride comfort can be improved considering handling performance.

In general, the ride and handling characteristics of a vehicle are strongly dependent on chassis parameters that come from the kinematic and compliance properties of a suspension system. For ride comfort improvement of a compact SUV with increasing handling performance simultaneously, this research proposes a new quantitative approach by considering various driving maneuvers and road surfaces. Particularly, five different road surfaces were used for ride comfort analysis, and this analysis was performed for two different vehicle speeds on a cleat road profile and three different vehicle speeds on a rough road profile. The contribution analysis of a suspension and a seat structure to ride comfort was investigated in order to decide an optimal structural combination. It was shown that contribution of each factor is different according to road profiles and driving conditions respectively.

A vehicle drifts due to several reasons from its intended straight path even in the case of no steering input. The multibody dynamic analysis of vehicle drift during accelerating and braking are performed. This paper focuses on modeling and evaluating effects of suspension parameters, differential friction, engine mounting and C.G. location of the vehicle under multibody dynamic simulation environment. Asymmetry of geometry and compliance between left and right side is considered cause of drift. The sensitivities of the suspension parameters are presented for each driving condition. In case of acceleration, the interaction of differential friction and driveshaft stiffness and their influence on drift are also studied. For braking condition, suspension parameters such as initial toe variation of rear coupled torsion beam axle type suspension and kingpin inclination deviation of front suspension are studied including the braking force difference.

In this paper, four different levels of finite element models of a full vehicle were developed for ride comfort and brake judder dynamics analysis. The differences between the models are how elasticity of various vehicle components is modeled. The dynamic analysis was performed considering nonlinear effects for the different levels of models. The nonlinear effects were characterized by frequency and amplitude dependent stiffness and damping values of hydraulic engine mounting, suspension lower control arm bushing, tire, shock absorber, and suspension friction. At each modeling level, simulation results were compared to those of test measurements. The differences of the analysis results of these models and the effect of nonlinear characteristics were investigated. The developed models were applied to ride comfort and brake judder dynamics analysis.