A Survey on Passive, Active and Semiactive Automotive Suspension Systems and Analyzing Tradeoffs in Design of Suspension Systems

Safety, reliability and cost are the major driving factors for research in automotive applications. Automotive suspension systems play a vital role in ensuring the comfort and safety of a vehicle. This paper presents the basic needs of a suspension system, and how they are met using passive, active and semiactive suspensions. The various components and parameters are surveyed and briefly discussed here. The tradeoffs in design, ride comfort vs road handling are demonstrated using simulation models. The comfort criteria is better at lower frequencies (1-2 Hz) where it is around with moderate road holding. The road holding at low and high range frequencies is superior, while degrading at mid frequencies. The comparison among various techniques are presented, which provide a direction for further research.