Structure Analysis And Optimization Of Front Suspension Control Arm Of An Automobile

Suspension system, which has a great influence upon running smoothness and manipulation stability, is a very significant part of the automobile. The control arm in the suspension system plays an critical role in the guidance and force transmission. The force analysis of the control arm is very complicated in the suspension during the automobile normally driving under the various road conditions. In order to improve the automobile of fuel economy, power, steering stability and the tire wear, the structure strength, stiffness of the control arm has to be sufficient, in addition the quality realize the lightweight design. Through the integrated use of multi-body dynamics theory, finite element method(FEM) and the theory of modern structural optimization design, this paper carried out modal analysis, static strength analysis and structure optimization design of the control arm of the certain automobile Macpherson suspension on the detailed design stage. The main studies were as follows:①The ADAMS/Car was employed in establishing the Macpherson suspension virtual prototype model, in addition the simulation of parallel wheel travel and opposite wheel travel was carried out on the basis of the model. The variation of wheel alignment parameters within a rational range based on the analysis of simulation results, we can confirm that the suspension virtual prototype was more accurately. According to Q/CC SY654-2013 standard, this paper calculated the grounding force of tire of the automobile in braking, acceleration, steering and turbulence four extreme working conditions. Then, added the grounding force on the dynamic model to extract the loads in the hinge points under various typical extreme operating condition.②The lower control arm three-dimensional entity model was established by CATIA, and the paper adopted Hyper Mesh to generate finite element calculation model. The article adopted the finite element numerical method to analysis the free modal and static strength of the control arm by Radioss. Through analysis the first order elasticity natural vibration frequency and static strength numerical results to estimate the material redundancy of the control arm, completed the lightweight design.③Based on the static strength analysis, depend on the minimum mass of the control arm as the goal, the yield limit of material and the vehicle resonance as the constraint condition, then adopted the Optistruct to implement the size optimization on the thickness of the control arm. Through comparative analysis the static structure strength and the elastic natural frequency of the mode before and after optimization at the detail design stage, estimated whether the lightweight design of the control arm is feasible.