Suspension System in Focus

Your car is composed of several systems like the suspension system. What is a suspension system? What are its functions? How does it work? In this article, those questions will be answered. Aside from that some concepts are explained through Physics. The moment you understand how your car’s suspension system functions, you’ll find it easy to determine some malfunctioning.

 

Your car’s suspension system includes springs, shock absorbers, and some linkages. It is the prime mechanism that separates your bum from the road. It is also the one that prevents your car from shaking itself to pieces. Its job is to maximize the friction between tires and the road. It provides steering stability with good handling. Plus, it ensures passengers’ comfort. Simply, suspension system is the one responsible for making your ride comfortable and smooth even when driving through rough terrains and road irregularities. How does it work?

 

To understand how your car’s suspension system works, you must first know some principles regarding road irregularities. As stated earlier, car’s suspension system is necessary during road irregularities and rough terrains. Due to some imperfections in road, forces are applied to the wheels. Newton’s laws of motion discussed that all forces have both magnitude and direction. The wheel moves up and down perpendicular to the road surface due to road bump. The magnitude depends upon the size whether it is a giant bump it is just a tiny speck. Thus, the car wheel experiences vertical acceleration the moment it passes over an imperfection. Without suspension system, the vertical energy is transferred to the frame. As a result, the frame will also move vertically. In this situation, wheels completely loose contact with the road. Then, due to the downward pull of gravity, the wheels can slam back into the road surface. Regarding how the suspension system works, it absorbs the energy of vertically accelerated wheel. By doing so, the frame and body remain undisturbed while the wheels follow road bumps. With the aid of suspension system components, car provides comfort and stable ride. So, what are these components?

 

Car’s suspension system is composed of major components like springs, shock absorber, and struts. The spring comes in numerous types: the leaf springs, torsion bars, and air springs. The most common type is the coil springs. They are heavy-duty torsion bars coiled around an axis. They compress and expand to absorb wheel motion. The leaf springs however are composed of several metal layers, called leaves. These leaves are bound together to form a single unit. This, torsion bars use twisting properties of steel bar to provide coil-spring-like performance. One end of a certain bar is connected to vehicle’s frame, while the other end is connected to a wishbone. The wishbone acts as lever moving perpendicularly to the torsion bar. Vertical motion transfers to the wishbone as the car hits a bump. The motion is then transferred to the levering action, and to the torsion bar. To provide spring force, the torsion bar twists along its axis. Finally, air springs are composed of a cylindrical air chamber. It is positioned between the wheel and car’s body. It absorbs wheel vibration by using air qualities. In addition to spring, you also have shock absorbers and struts. The two help absorb energy and further enhance the suspension system’s role. Specifically, shock absorber performs two functions. First is to absorb any larger-than-average bumps in the road. By doing so, shock is not transferred to the car’s chassis. Second, it keeps your wheels’ road contact.

 

If you have a good suspension system, you will also have a good riding experience. The moment you experience excessive car motion, better check your suspension system.