The Influence of Tire Damping in Quarter Car Active Suspension Models

Setting tire damping to zero when modeling automotive active suspension systems compels the misleading conclusions that, at the wheelhop frequency, no matter what forces are exerted between sprung and unsprung masses, their motion are uncoupled, and the vertical acceleration of the sprung mass will be unaffected. Alternatively, taking tire damping to be small but nonzero, the motions of the sprung and unsprung masses are coupled at all frequencies, and control forces can be used to reduce the sprung mass vertical acceleration at the wheelhop frequency. The effect of introducing tire damping can be quite large. In the case of a force law chosen to enhance ride along a straight smooth road, where road holding is not a major concern, setting the tire damping ratio to 0.02 reduces rms body acceleration by 30 percent.