Accumulated tolerance analysis of suspension by geometric tolerances based on multibody elasto-kinematic analysis

Tolerance design of vehicle suspension is an important factor that affects the ride and handling quality and cost of the vehicle. Also, applying geometric tolerance to an analysis model is found to be a difficult process. This paper presents a method for tolerance analysis of wheel alignment of vehicle suspension. Monte-Carlo simulation method is applied to multibody elasto-kinematic model to analyze the accumulated geometric tolerances. As an example, Macpherson Strut Type front half car model is used, and wheel alignment dispersion and contribution ratio to the dispersion by accumulated geometric tolerances is computed. This paper also presents an efficient modeling and analysis method for elasto-kinematic model of vehicle suspensions by computing the stiffness matrix analytically. The simulation results of a Macpherson Strut Type demonstrates the validity and accuracy of the proposed method.