how does the suspension work in a car?
In: Engineering
Your car axle is connected to the frame with a spring. Just a spring alone would create a very bouncy ride so there is also a shock absorber that slows the bounce down. Your best bet when it comes to mechanical questions is to watch old Jam Handy films on YouTube. This one is from 1938 and can tell you all you need to know. https://youtu.be/ej7CRAIGXow
There’s also a great one about transmissions and another about differentials.
Essentially the effectiveness of suspension comes down to two components: the springs and the shock absorbers. Yes there are different ways of attaching a movable wheel to the car’s frame, but let’s gloss over that. For our purposes, assume the wheel and axle are mounted to some kind of hinged arm that allows them to move. The spring provides support between the movable wheel and the body of the car. Now if you only had a spring every time you hit a bump the wheel would move up and over it, but it would inevitable transfer that energy to the body of the car, cause the body of the car to bounce up and down even after the bump has been passed. The shock absorber works to dampen out the bounciness of the spring. This allows the wheel to roll up and down a bump while transferring as little of that bounce to the body of the car as possible. This not only smoothes out the ride for the passenger, but also works to keep even traction on the tires at all times, improving control and safety.
The many parts of the suspension (control arms, shocks, springs, etc) are the only thing suspending the rest of the car (chassis, frame, etc) from the road. Without it, the bumps would be extremely hard, and eventually damage the car and maybe the people inside.
Too soft of suspension, and it’d be an uncontrollable water bed floating down the road. An important part of the suspension is to keep the tires in contact with the road, while keeping the car easy and predictable to control.
Get a glass of water. Hold it in your hand. Now bounce. Bend your knees up and down.
The water doesn’t spill, does it? Because you’re using your muscles to balance everything out and keep the water still and in the glass.
Bingo. That’s what your car’s suspension does. It’s the car’s knees and elbows and muscles absorbing many of the shocks and bumps. It keeps the passengers and cargo from bouncing around. Among other things.
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