Riding Comfort Enhancement Using C-Shaped Spring Suspension

Advances in automobile technology have led to the dynamic development of various types of active suspension systems to improve passenger riding comfort and maneuverability. This study improved the riding comfort of vehicle passengers by converting a conventional spring into a rotating C-shaped spring system that supports the load of the vehicle and varies its vertical stiffness. The C-shaped spring system rotates the spring in the multi-link suspension structure, utilizing the mechanical properties of the spring itself and the offset effect of the spring seat to vary the wheel rate. Using this effect, the riding comfort of an automobile can be improved to a certain level by altering the motion characteristics of the automobile body as it reacts to road bumps and irregularities. A C-shaped spring, an offset spring seat, and a rotating system were combined and installed on the rear suspension of an SUV. A field test of a vehicle driving over a speed bump was conducted to comparatively analyze the obtained data measurements, which verified the utility of the increased riding comfort when the vehicle was equipped with the proposed rotating C-shaped spring system.