A finite element analysis of the barrel-shaped helical spring on the vehicle rear suspension

It can improve the stability of the vehicle by using non-linear spring, such as barrel-shaped helical spring, in vehicle suspension. The barrel-shaped helical spring on the rear suspension of PASSAT B5 was analyzed is this paper. Firstly, the accurate physical model of the spring is built by 3D scanning and post-process. Then the stiffness of the spring was calculated by finite element analysis, and the influences of the major structural parameters on the spring's stiffness were obtained. Finally, the FE model of the barrel-shaped helical spring was validated with experiment results.