Tilted Coil Spring Mounts for Twist Beam Axle Lateral Force Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing rear wheel suspension systems face challenges in balancing stiffness and flexibility to absorb lateral forces during cornering, leading to an unresponsive ride due to compliance of structural elements, which results in increased weight and fuel consumption when attempting to counteract these forces.
Innovation Solution
A rear wheel suspension system incorporating a tilted coil spring with adapters that secure the spring ends to mounts, allowing the spring to generate lateral forces that counteract wheel forces without additional components, thereby reducing load on structural elements and maintaining ride comfort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the mounts or support bushings are made stiff to avoid over-steer, then handling stability is improved, but ride comfort deteriorates due to reduced flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The spring mount is divided into multiple functional segments: a mounting portion attached to the structural element, a spring receiving portion that holds the spring, and a compliance portion with controlled flexibility. This segmentation allows different parts to fulfill conflicting requirements - the mounting portion provides stiffness for handling stability while the compliance portion enables flexibility for ride comfort.
Solution Approach 2:
The compliance portion is designed with specific local flexibility characteristics that differ from the rigid mounting portion. This local quality differentiation allows the mount to exhibit stiff behavior at the mounting interface for stability while providing controlled compliance at the spring interface for ride comfort, resolving the contradiction between these two opposing requirements.
2Reliability
If the thicknesses of material are increased to counter compliance of structural elements, then ride responsiveness is improved, but weight increases leading to higher fuel consumption
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing material thickness throughout the structural elements, the invention changes the compliance parameter locally within the spring mount structure. The compliance portion is designed with specific geometric parameters that provide the necessary rigidity control without requiring increased overall material thickness, thereby maintaining ride responsiveness while avoiding excessive weight gain.
Solution Approach 2:
The compliance function is extracted from the main structural elements and concentrated into a dedicated compliance portion within the spring mount. This extraction allows the structural elements to be optimized for strength with minimal thickness, while the separate compliance portion provides the necessary rigidity control, reducing overall weight while maintaining ride responsiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle includes a rear wheel suspension including a twist beam axle. The vehicle also includes upper and lower mounts for a spring and each defining a seat. The lower mount is disposed on the axle and the upper mount is disposed at a distance and parallel to the lower mount on a frame member. A first adapter is disposed within the lower mount seat and a second adapter is disposed within the upper mount seat. Each adapter defines a groove to receive an end of the spring, a support extending from the groove within an inner diameter of the spring and a wall disposed along a segment of the groove being configured to maintain a position of the spring.