Dual Wishbone Suspension Load Analysis

As the car travels across an urban road, it will be subject to various Bump, Turn and Braking forces. In order to ensure a safe design, we need ensure that all the parts pass FEA for these loads.

For our design, we decided to test all our parts for a 3g bump, 1.5g turn and a 1g braking load. The rod ends located on the control arm is one of the first points of failure in the suspension.

One of my first tasks was analyzing the forces on the rod end and the control arms. These results were used to FEA test the control arms and validate the rod end selection.

Analyzing the suspension system, there will be 2 forces in the upper control arm and three in the lower control arm. There isn't a vertical force in the upper control arm as the shocks are mounted in the upper control arm.

Loads

Static 3g bump load

Static 1.5g turning load

Static 1g braking load

Solving for the forces

Results

These were then used for the FEA testing of the control arms and the validation of the rod ends.