The ability of a Formula SAE sports car to negotiate a turn in a race is influenced by many parameters which include car's overall geometry, its shape, weight distribution, type of suspension used, spring and shock absorber characteristics that are used in the tire properties, static and dynamic loading. Steady-state cornering implies that the forces acting on the vehicle are unchanging for a given time. The suspension uprights form a connection between the wheel assembly and the suspension linkages. The criticality of the upright is that it is considered an un-suspended body, but in fact, it is subjected to very high stresses. The dynamic load imposed on the vehicle from various road conditions, cornering, braking and suspension assembly constraints generate stress on the upright body.

The equations of motion generally govern vehicle dynamics. For a kinematic and rigid body dynamics analysis, a multibody dynamics (MBD) approach is popular. The results of the dynamic analysis yield internal loads which are used to analyze suspension components for structural stiffness and strength. Automotive companies with relatively lower structural loads have made the MBD approach popular because it is supposed to be computationally less expensive. Elastodynamics is an alternative approach to solving dynamics equations while considering the components to be elastic. This approach can capture the inertial and elastic responses of the components and the load path with varying positions of the components in a mechanism.

In this research, a quarter-car suspension is modeled in a finite element code (Abaqus®), focusing on the vehicle upright but still modeling the connections and interactions of the quarter-car suspension system of a FSAE vehicle. The BEAM element modeling used for the suspension members captures the bending response. The overall model is created by making computationally conscious decisions, debugging and refining the interactions and connections to be representative. The modeling technique to create elastodynamic models is explored and established with a versatile set of suspension components and interactions providing a good experience with finite element modeling. The models are created with incremental steps and early steps are verified with hand calculations. A further vehicle verification and validation plan is the next immediate priority to gain confidence in the model for accurate simulations which can be used to predict accurate structural and dynamic results. With extending the model capabilities and computational capabilities, a quarter-car suspension model is powerful enough to run the entire track simulations for formula races and even durability load cases for commercial vehicles. Fatigue loading and abusive test cases would be the load cases to investigate possible failure modes.

The quarter-car suspension model is a framework with different interactions, connections, components, boundary conditions and loads that are representative for different suspension configurations in different vehicles. The best practices of this modeling exercise are established and scalability to defeature or add details while preserving the connection behavior is achieved.