STUDY OF SUSPENSION CONTROL ARM REPLACEMENT BY ANOTHER MADE OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Abstract

The aim of this work is to make a study for designing a composite control am1 to reduce the automobile weight and thereby improve fuel consumption.

A general study of composite materials and their constituents, mechanics, strength, processes of ma nufacturing, ...etc are done. This study leads to the choice of the type of resin and fiber as wel l as the process of manufacturing s uitabl e to the production of the control a rm prototype.

The actual suspension control a nn, the forces acting on it at d ifferen t working conditions, as well as its kinematics and the variati on of the camber angle are stud ied.

The shape and di mensions of the new control ann are derived analytically, in a way to replace the actua l control ann and the coil s rring and to get nearly the stiffness of the replaced spring.

A material specimen is done and tested. A prototype of the composite control arm is fabricated and tested experimentally. The stiff ness of the new control arm is checked numerically using finite element and compared to that got experimentally. The new control arm design is checked for the forces and stresses induced under the different working condition using the quadratic failure criteria. The kinematics of the new control ann and the variation. of the camber angle are studied and compared to that of the original one. A comparison between the steel control arm and the composite one is done reveal ing the percentage of weight saving.