Investigation of methods for the objective assessment of the dynamic system behaviour of air springs

Abstract

The driving behaviour of a sports car is characterized particularly by its driving dynamics features. Especially Porsche customers have extremely high expectations regarding the driving behaviour. To ensure everyday useability of sports cars, driving comfort is besides the performance another fundamental development target, which classically induces a trade-off.

To circumvent this trade-off, mechatronic components are increasingly used while developing chassis systems. On the one hand this procedure enables a better resolution of the target figure concerning performance and comfort, on the other hand it exhibits more complexity and introduces additional test requirements. This stands contrary to the urgent desire to reduce development expenses and its required development timeframe. Within this context, increasing test rig analysis comes into the focus for development of air spring systems.

This paper presents a new method to analyse and describe the system behaviour of multi-chamber air springs. On this basis, a statement about the expected driving behaviour can be given even in the early stage of the vehicle development process, although only few cost-intensive test vehicles are available. As a result, system awareness can be increased making use of test rigs to evaluate single components as well as the overall system. Furthermore, the organizational coordination effort during advanced development stages can be reduced.