EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE BUSHING CHARACTERISTICS UNDER SEVERAL EXCITATION INPUTS FOR BUSHING MODELING

The bushing element shows nonlinear characteristics in both displacements and frequencies, also with hysteretic responses for repeated vibrational excitations. Since the characteristics of the rubber bushing significantly affects the accuracy of the vehicle dynamic simulation result, it should be accurately modeled in the vehicle suspension model. To develop an accurate bushing model for vehicle dynamics analysis, the bushing characteristics under several excitation inputs must be known. In this paper, a 3-axis tester was used to capture the bushing characteristics. The random inputs, sine inputs, and step inputs were imposed on each axis of the bushing. Also, two-axis inputs, the radial-axial and radial-normal inputs, were simultaneously imposed on the tester. Three-axis inputs including the radial-axial-normal direction were supplied to the tester. Bushing characteristics of each case were precisely analyzed. These results could be available for dynamic modeling of bushing.