Methodology to Deduce the Testing Requirement of Twist Beam by Numerical Comparison of Roll Travel 2023-01-0643

Twist-beam suspensions are an example of design solution presenting acceptable performance when applied to passenger cars & light vehicles and it can provide an optimal between cost & performance in the automotive market. For these reasons, twist beam is quite popular in use in rear suspension of light vehicles. In contrary to other types of suspension, the twist-beam has a flexible torsion beam connecting the swing arms. The study of the deformation of this flexible element becomes important to understand its performance and durability behavior. As the name signifies, twist beam major performance attribute is control of twist or opposite wheel travel arising from vehicle roll or road input. Current approach for the study this deformation is through FEA & Multi-body dynamics software tools. Conventional FEA approach requires availability of full-scale CAD models to work on, which is quite time consuming and its availability is difficult in early stage of the suspension design/development.

The main objective of this work was to evaluate the performance behavior using simplified mathematical modeling. This approach will give an alternative way to estimate the deformations for the initial stages of the suspension design, comparison between various vehicles/designs in less time as compared to FEA approach.

It also helps to reduce the iterations of RLDA (Road Load Data Acquisition) to understand the difference loads and strains on the structure. This will reduce the time and cost of data collection.