Analysis of automotive rolling lobe air spring under alternative factors with finite element model

Air springs are widely used in automotive suspensions for their superior performance in terms of low friction motion, adjustable load carrying capacity and user-friendly ride height control. However, it has posed great difficulties in constructing an accurate model as well as the analysis of the influence of alternative factors, such as cord angle, cord diameter and initial pressure. In this paper, a numerical model of the rolling lobe air spring (RLAS) is built by using finite element method and compared with an existing analytical model. An experiment with respect to the vertical stiffness of the RLAS is carried out to validate the accuracy of the proposed model. Evaluation result reveals that the existing analytical model cannot represent the performance of the RLAS very well, whereas the accuracy of the numerical model is very good. With the verified numerical model, the impacts of many alternative factors on the characteristics of the RLAS are analyzed. Numerical results show that the newly proposed model is reliable to determine the vertical characteristic and physical dimensions of the RLAS under the alternative factors.

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