Multibody approach in suspension system optimization

In this paper an approach of optimization of suspension system parameters is described. Taking into consideration the sti?ness and damping coe?cients of springs and shock absorbers of a heavy road transportvehicle semitrailer, process of adjusting those values has been undertaken by means of the response surface methodology and a desirability function application, supported by the sensitivity computations. Twodifferent methods of constructing metamodels: Kriging and polynomial regression have been tested andcompared with a set of results obtained from the numerical multibody dynamic analysis. The objectiveof the undertaken efforts was to minimize the loads in the crucial points of the structure, identi?ed as the high-risk failure areas. A number of simulations have been carried out under the set of di?erent load cases, specially established to represent a wide range of operating conditions possible to be met during the vehicle life cycle.