The effect of linear spring number at side

load of McPherson suspension in electric city

car
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 1788, 030076 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4968329
Published Online: 03 January 2017

Sigit Setijo Budi, Agus Suprihadi, Agus Makhrojan, Rifky Ismail, and J. Jamari

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AIP Conference Proceedings 1788, 030076 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4968329 1788, 030076

© 2016 Author(s).
 The Effect of Linear Spring Number at Side Load of
McPherson Suspension in Electric City Car
Sigit Setijo Budi1, 2, a), Agus Suprihadi1, 3, Agus Makhrojan1, 3, Rifky Ismail1, and
J. Jamari1
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Diponegoro University Semarang 50275, Indonesia
2
Automotive Engineering, Polytechnic of Road Transport Safety, Tegal 50125, Indonesia
3
Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic of Harapan Bersama, Tegal 52117, Indonesia
a)
Corresponding author: salatiga.sigit79@gmail.com

Abstract. The function of the spring suspension on Mc Pherson type is to control vehicle stability and increase ride
convenience although having tendencies of side load presence. The purpose of this study is to obtain simulation results of
Mc Pherson suspension spring in the electric city car by using the finite element method and determining the side load
that appears on the spring suspension. This research is conducted in several stages; they are linear spring designing
models with various spring coil and spring suspension modeling using FEM software. Suspension spring is compressed
in the vertical direction (z-axis) and at the upper part of the suspension springs will be seen the force that arises towards
the x, y, and z-axis to simulate the side load arising on the upper part of the spring. The results of FEM simulation that
the side load on the spring toward the x and y-axis which the value gets close to zero is the most stable spring.

INTRODUCTION
Electric car becomes more important because it does not only reduce noise and air pollution but also can be used to
reduce dependence on fossil fuels [1]. The electric car is transportation that grows rapidly and does an improvisation
of vehicle models by the society trend [2]. The electric car, beside it is environmentally friendly, is also designed for
comfortable driving for the user to meet the demands of society. The electric car is a type of vehicle that is designed
and made to be ridden effectively in performance, time efficiency, and comfortable. The primary function of the
suspension is to control vehicle movement stability so the car can be more comfortable to drive [3]. From some
suspension types, Mc Pherson suspension type is widely used by passenger cars because it has a simple model [4].
Generally, Mc Pherson suspension has slope angle characteristic towards axis line of the shock absorber which aims
to reduce friction in the suspension that resulted in driving convenience [5].
Spring which used in Mc Pherson suspension usually has anomalous motion direction (displacement) to x, y, and
z-axis that become its characteristic [6]. But the emergence of side force (FQ) at the top damper rod causes friction
on the components at the top mounts part [7] as in Fig. 1. Moreover, the Mc Pherson model has no upper arm so that
the top mount is merged with the vehicle body. This would cause a vibration due to the friction between wheels with
the road and forwarded to the vehicle body, especially to the components at the top mount.
The side load can be reduced by changing the direction of spring motion to the right direction force (z-axis) and
minimize the force direction and displacement that lead to the x and y-axis. Therefore, it is very important to reduce
the side load that arises on Mc Pherson suspension system [2]. At the design stage, the presence of force changing
factors which received by suspension also influenced the design and performance of the suspension [8]. The purpose
of this research is to find the right form of linear spring to be used in electric cars.
The first step is to create three models of linear spring that will be simulated using FEM software. Spring model
has the same free length but has different coil amount combination. The FEM simulation is done by giving load

International Conference on Engineering, Science and Nanotechnology 2016 (ICESNANO 2016)

AIP Conf. Proc. 1788, 030076-1–030076-5; doi: 10.1063/1.4968329
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1452-5/$30.00

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towards z-axis for those three spring models then observed the amount and the direction of the force, and the
displacement that happens during simulation.

FIGURE 1. Force on suspension that produces side force [7].

FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

Spring which used in this study has a free length and the same diameter of the coils but has some coils of 11, 12,
and 13. The spring dimensions used by the author have a diameter about 10 mm, outside diameter of 100 mm, 268
mm springs length. The material used is light steel ST 37 where material properties are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1. Material properties

Mild Steel
Density 7850 kg/m³
Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) 460 MPa
Yield Strength 250 MPa
Modulus of Elasticity 207 GPa
Poisson’s ratio 0.3
Plastic strain at UTS 0.35

Create CAD Obtained

Validation FE Modelling result Finish
Start geometry
& Analysis analysis
model

FIGURE 2. Analysis process of spring modeling

Clamped

FIGURE 3. Clamped position and spring suspension dimension

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Figure 2 illustrates that the first step is to validate the use of research conducted by Liu, et al [7]. Spring suspension
modeling uses finite element method with ANSYS software. This modeling is used to investigate the side load with
observe to the force and displacement to the direction of the x, y, z at the upper part of the spring suspension. For the
simulation steps which performed on spring suspension, the lower part of spring suspension on the clamp and load
are gotten from reaction force which received by spring suspension is shown in Fig. 3.
Determination of the load follows the research conducted by Liu, et al [7] where the spring experiencing
displacement due to loading (per mm) can be known the amount and direction of the force which appears. Spring
displacement is measured up to 250 mm.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The validation of this study is using the research conducted by Liu, et al [7]. The comparison of FEM simulation
repetition towards research conducted by Liu, et al [7] shows the difference of less than 10% as shown in Fig. 4.
Force (N)

Displacement (mm)
FIGURE 4. Validation result

Springs of 11 coils
Figure 5 above shows the simulation on the 11 coils spring. During the displacement of 50 mm to the spring
suspension, shows the force and displacement that lead to the x, y, and z as shown in Fig. 6. The force that received
by spring suspension during the displacement of 100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm, and 250 mm are used to determine the
displacement that occurs in each axis. FEM modeling has been done using tetrahedral mesh with 5727 nodes and
2180 element.

FIGURE 5. Meshing.
From the spring suspension simulation using 11 coils, spring shows the displacement increasing of the spring
suspension, the force towards the z-axis is greater, while the forces toward x and y-axis directions are closer to zero
as shown in Fig. 6.
Based on the analysis of linear springs as shown in Fig. 6(a) using 11 coils spring at 50 mm displacement, the
force towards z-axis direction is 1098 N, towards x-axis direction is 0.25 N and towards y-axis direction is 23.9 N.
During displacement of 250 mm the force towards z-axis direction is 5490 N, towards x-axis direction is 1.2 N and
towards y-axis direction is 119.7 N.

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 Force (N)
(a) (b) Displacement (mm)
FIGURE 6. (a) The force of 11 coils spring during 50 mm displacement (b) The graph of simulation results on the spring
suspension of 11 coils

Spring of 12 coils
From the simulation of the 12 coils spring at the 50 mm displacement, the force towards z-axis direction is 952
N, towards x-axis direction is 0.5 N and the force towards y-axis direction is 25 N as shown in Fig. 7(a). From the
simulation of the 12 coils spring at the 250 mm displacement, the force towards z-axis direction is 4763 N, towards
x-axis direction is 2.6 N and the force towards y-axis direction is 125 N.
Force (N)

Displacement (mm)
(a) (b)

FIGURE 7. (a) The force of 12 coils spring during 50 mm displacement (b) The graph of simulations results on suspension
spring of 12 coils

Spring of 13 coils
On the third spring with 13 coils at the 50 mm, the force towards z-axis is 840 N, towards x-axis, is 0.2 N, and
towards y-axis is 21 N. At the 250 mm displacement, the force towards z-axis is 4203 N, towards x-axis, is 1.3 N,
and towards y-axis is 105 N as in Fig. 8(a). FEM simulation results for the 13 coils spring with 50 mm to 250 mm
displacement, the amount of force at the x, y, z-axis can be seen in Fig. 8(b).

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 Force (N)
Displacement (mm)
(a) (b)

FIGURE 8. (a) The force of 13 coils spring during 50 mm displacement (b) The graph of simulations results on suspension
spring of 13 coils

CONCLUSION
Based on the results of the linear springs simulation, the 11 coils spring, can withstand the force at z-axis
direction better than the others and the 13 coils spring has the smallest force. For the x-axis direction, the 12 coils
spring has the biggest force and the 11 coils spring has the smallest force, while for the y-axis direction, the 13 coils
spring has the smallest force and 12 coils spring has the biggest force. The results of spring suspension simulation
showed that the smaller force which leads to x and y-axis (close to zero) so the side load that occurs is decreased.
From three types of spring that have been simulated, the simulation showed the influence of the amount of the coils.
The more coils of the spring, the presence of side load can be minimized. This state can be seen from the simulation
results which have been compared. The spring with 13 coils has the smallest x and y-axis direction force. However,
the ability to withstand the force towards z-axis (increase and decrease) is owned by the 12 coils spring where the
ability to withstand the force at the displacement reaches 4761.9 N. the excellent ability to withstand the force
towards z-axis direction means that the spring can reduce yawing (swing) indication. The most important thing is the
right combination so that the suspension especially the spring can control the vehicle’s movement direction.

REFERENCES
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Electric Vehicular Technology and Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical, and Chemical Engineering-2015, IEEE
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