Design and damping matching method for a novel decoupled suspension system

To address the coupling of stiffness and damping in the suspension system of high-performance vehicles under heave and roll manoeuvres, this paper designs a decoupled suspension system and proposes a damping matching method. First, the motion characteristics of various decoupled suspension structures are analysed, leading to the development of the decoupled suspension in which roll stiffness is provided by a torsion bar. Then, damper selection and testing are conducted, and the damping matching method for the decoupled suspension system is proposed. Finally, three tests are conducted: multi-body dynamics simulation for decoupling analysis, lap time simulation for the vehicle performance, and real-vehicle test for the symmetry of the damper motion. The results show that a race car equipped with the decoupled suspension achieves shorter lap times compared to one with a traditional suspension, and the proposed damping matching method provides an ideal baseline for suspension design and tuning.