One of the integral parts of a car is its suspension. It along with absorbing shocks and impacts, also helps to limit the overall vehicle body movement, or sway when the wheels overcome an obstacle. This, in turn, makes our drive less bumpy and more comfortable. The purpose of a suspension is also to keep your tires on the ground.
Check Out the Level of Abuse Your Suspension Takes Every Day
But as anyone who has dealt with a car knows, suspensions come both as stiff and soft coil springs. The difference is in the Young’s Modulus of the springs, with the higher value leading to stiffer and harder coils.
This also offers differences in applications, with softer coil springs allowing more mechanical grip and doing a better job of keeping the tires on the ground. This, in turn, increases the handling capability of a car as well. Whereas, a stiff spring helps in making the ride more comfortable when it comes to bumps, depressions, and surface irregularities of the road. Therefore, luxury cars prefer to have a soft suspension, because comfort matters more than handling for a perfectly smooth ride.
Stiff springs are usually used by race cars, but what’s the logic behind?
Watch the video by Engineering Explained to find the science of car suspensions.
How well do you know about suspension of a car now? Let us know in the comments’ section below.
