Light Weight Tubular Suspension Frame Design for Light Commercial Vehicle

Front Suspension frame is an integral part of automobile chassis which acts as a major load carrying structural member and connects different suspension components with body. It provides the required stiffness for achieving desired vehicle dynamics performance. Acting as a major road load path from tire to body, it also acts as a mounting base for suspension arm, steering gearbox and compression rod. Considering the competitive market conditions, increased FE demand along with enhanced structural durability, it is important to evaluate suspension frame for stiffness and durability using CAE methodology so as to reduce product development time and First Time Right cost effective design. In this paper focus is given on developing CAE methodology used to design a light weight tubular kind of suspension frame for Light Commercial Vehicle with stiffness comparable to conventional sheet metal suspension frame. Aim of developing CAE methodology is to obtain similar durability performance of tubular frame with reduced weight. Physical testing was carried out for validation of explained CAE methodology and to study correlation between Bench test and proposed CAE methodology. Keywords: Tubular Suspension Frame, Stiffness, Durability, Correlation