Enhancing Vibration Reduction on Lightweight Lower Control Arm

This paper describes the design procedure to enhance the damping properties of a multimaterial lightweight suspension arm for a C-segment vehicle. An innovative viscoelastic material has been used to join carbon fiber with steel that has a function of passive constrained layer damper and adhesive simultaneously. Therefore, the hybrid technology applied has been focused on reducing the LCA mass, diminishing the steel thickness, and adding a CFRP tailored cover without compromising the global mechanical performance. Particular attention has been paid to the investigation of the dynamic response in terms of vibration reduction, especially in the range of structure-borne frequencies of 0–600 Hz. Two different viscoelastic materials have been evaluated in such a way to compare their stiffness, damping, and dynamic properties. The experimental test results have been virtually correlated with a commercial FEM code to create the respective material card and predict the real behavior of the LCAs (original and hybrid). The experimental modal analysis has been performed and compared on both the arms highlighting a very good correlation between virtual and experimental results. In particular, the hybrid LCA allows an interesting improvement of damping ratio, about 3,5 times higher for each eigenmode than in the original solution.

Lightweight Design of a Multi-Material Suspension Lower Control Arm

This paper is focused on the design, analysis and testing of a multi-material (carbon fibre and steel) Lower Control Arm (LCA) of a McPherson suspension for a C segment vehicle. Therefore, starting from the existing component (made of steel), the LCA mass has been reduced by using a hybrid technology, diminishing the steel thickness and adding a carbon fiber tailored cover without compromising the mechanical performance in terms of stiffness and stress distribution. In so doing, it has been possible to evaluate the potential and the capabilities of the hybridization without re-designing the component totally. In particular, it has been developed a specific methodology that combines both virtual and experimental procedures to face the hybridization challenges of mechanical coupling, safety and lightweight. For these reasons, the multi-material lower control arm represents a noticeable case study in which this methodology has been applied, correlated and validated.