Abstract
This paper describes the process of analyzing vehicle stiffness in terms of frequency band in order to improve vehicle handling. Vehicle handling and ride comfort are highly related to the systems such as suspension, seat, steering, and the car body design. In existing analytical processes, the resonance frequency of a car body is designed to be greater than 25 Hz in order to increase the stiffness of the body against idle vibration. This paper introduces a method for using a band with a frequency lower than 20 Hz to analyze how stiffness affects vehicle handling. Accordingly, static stiffness analysis of a 1g cornering force was conducted to minimize the deformation of vehicle components derived from a load on parts attached to the suspension. In addition, this technology is capable of achieving better performance than older technology. Analysis of how body attachment stiffness affects the dynamic stiffness of a bushing in the attachment parts of the suspension is expected to lead to improvements with respect to vehicle handling and road noise. The process of developing a car body with a high degree of stiffness, which was accomplished in the preliminary stage of this study, confirms the possibility of improving the stability performance and of designing a lightweight prototype car. These improvements can reduce the time needed to develop better vehicles.