Identification of geometric and elastokinematic parameters of mechanisms of automotive suspension systems
The complex behaviour of car suspension led the car industry to widely use multibody simulation software for the design and optimization of suspension mechanisms. These tools are used to build elastokinematic models of suspension mechanisms and to analyze the influence of design parameter1 on the vehicle behaviour. However significant differences appear between real behaviour of suspension mechanisms and the behaviour of their elastokinematic models. The present work proposes new methods allowing the identification of the geometrical and elastokinematic parameters of car suspension mechanisms. These methods are based on the observation of position and orientation of parts in the mechanism for various load cases. Two approaches are presented for the identification of geometrical parameters and two others for the identification of stiffness parameters. Each method is tested numerically and experimentally in order to check the quality of the identified models.