Cost effective Adaptive Suspension System

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Nowadays luxury comes at a higher price. This concept is based on the principle that in soft suspension systems, there is a time gap between the instances the shock experienced by the tires and that shock being transmitted to the body of the car. Here comes our concept of using a force sensitive leveling device and hydraulic cylinders which is controlled by a proportional valve to suppress the shocks.

The suspension system uses a simple layout in which four leveling devices which are placed in four extreme corners of the chassis where the moment from the nearest axle is maximum. The system uses a hydraulic cylinder which acts as a damping system. A solenoid operated proportional valve controls the input hydraulic cylinder. The valve gets its input from the levellig device. The centralized reservoir and pumping unit supplies the fluid to the system. The unique feature of this concept is the leveling device that is simpler and serves a lot other purposes than other active suspension systems.

When the car experiences a bump, the wheel begins to travel upward of the bump and the slope increases gradually and the force acting on the leveling device also increases gradually. The leveling device being force sensitive experiences the inclination and produces electric pulse which varies at different periods of time. This is sent as input to the proportional valve which controls the fluid flow to the hydraulic cylinder. Accordingly the hydraulic cylinders compresses or decompresses the spring absorbing all the undulations on the road.

This concept also reduces the body roll of the car with the aid of the ECU unit. The ball is thrown outwards due to the difference in magnitude of centrifugal force and according to this the hydraulic cylinders of the outer wheels are raised and those of the inner wheels are lowered in order to nullify the body roll of the car.

This device consists of a metal ball made of high density element placed in a cone member which subtends a very small angle at its centre just to keep the spherical member in its position. Any slight inclination makes the spherical member to displace from its position and makes it to come in contact with the force sensitive keys surrounding it. If the gradient is more, the force acting on the switches will be more due to its weight and the electric pulse generated is sent to the proportional valve. The device is also used to detect whether the wheels are touching the ground and to take appropriate safety measures in prior to any accidents.

This concept of adaptive suspension system would be comparatively cheaper than the systems produced by leading companies.

This concept is also feasible as the parts of the system are already available in market except the leveling device and hence has a great potential in the automobile sector.

This concept helps in enhancing the safety, luxury and handling of the vehicle at a much lesser price than the conventional systems.

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Kavin Raja Gunasekharan
  • Type of entry:
    team
    Team members:
    Kavin Raja G - Team Leader,
    Sridhar K - Design Engineer,
    Shankara Narayanan P,
    Adarsh A,
    Karthik R,
    Mohammed Hashiq M,
    Santosh N.
  • Profession:
    Student
  • Kavin Raja is inspired by:
    Challenges in simplifying complex designs.
  • Software used for this entry:
    Solid Works
  • Patent status:
    none