Hi everybody.
First of all thanks to everyone who makes this site so interesting.
I have a question, i hope that somebody explain it to me. Scarbs is one of the experts i think on them.
What are active suspensions and how they work ( always in Formula 1) ?
Active suspension are used to optimise something, whether it be aero profile, camber, roll angle, or wheel loads. Hydrolics are used to vary lengths within the suspension geometetry to control whatever needs to be control and whatnot and sometimes active dampers are used to have better control over the transients. Active suspensions are illegal in F1 racing
Location: Covilhã, Portugal (and sometimes in Évora)
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Well....acordding to the "Formula 1 Technology" book by Peter Wright.....active suspension doesn't vary the camber....it is built in a way that does the same functions of the springs, dampers, torsion bars and Roll Bars....it is also possible to change the ride height.
I read everything in a diagonal way.....skiping almost everything.....I'll read it carefully and post back tomorrow.
Lotus started researching active suspension in 1981, originally intended to equip its Formula One racing cars. The active F1 ran in Brazil and Long Beach '83 in the hands of Nigel Mansell. Despite lacking competitiveness in other areas, It proved that active suspension could withstand hard use at 180 mph and 3 g lateral acceleration. The development team went back to drawing board and did more tests to improve the software. It was not raced again until 1987, when the Honda powered 99T won 3 races in the hands of Ayrton Senna.
However, the active suspension did not offer sufficient advantage in F1 racing. Theoretically, it could raise cornering speed considerably. ("Cornering at 200mph" used to be Team Lotus's slogan when defending this technology.) But on the down side, its hydraulic pump consumed horsepower. we don't have the exact figure, but years later Lotus told us the active suspension in its Excel development car consumed 4 - 4.5 hp on smooth road and up to 9 hp on rough roads. Worst of all, Team Lotus did not get the specially developed tyres needed to extract its potential. As the active suspension reduced tyre's slip angle, the tyres generated insufficient heat to attain the necessary working temperature, and as a result always ran cold.
Just after the F1 debut in the 1983 season, Lotus Engineering started developing the active suspension technology for production car use. It used the Esprit as the development platform. Like the racing car, the hardware - hydraulic actuators - came from aerospace industry, where active suspension was used in advanced jet engines. According to the engineers involved, the most crucial part was the software rather than hardware. They had to road test for a lot of hours to acquire the necessary data in order to write the program.
The first 2 generations were spring less, but the Mk III and Mk IV system, which were equipped in the Excel development cars, had springs as back up in case the active system broke. The software was gradually improved.
British magazine Fastlane tested them twice, once in the '87 Mk III and then in the Mk IV two years later. In the latter it reported significant improvement in ride quality and body control. It also expressed optimistically that the system would go into mass production within a few years, probably under the name Volvo, Chevrolet or Mercedes-Benz, as they all had been consulting Lotus.
This did not come true. The main reasons, are likely to be cost, and reliability. The only successful application was still in motor racing - between 1992 and 1994, F1 championship were dominated by the active Williams and Benetton. As F1 was at the stage of running Turbo power with a surfeit of BHP the losses presumably were not a problem.
Meanwhile, The DTM series also saw active suspension's superiority in Mercedes C-class and Opel Calibra, it was too superior, the FIA banned it.
The last time Active suspension reared its head was in 1995 (?), when Lotus showed the Esprit SDIII development car. After that, the automotive world seems to have forgotten about Active suspension.
i believe active suspention is seen in some cars now-a-days, or at least will be - GMC, for one, was doing some testing with active suspension on their corvette last year, i THINK (not sure though) their system had something to do with using electromagnets to pump charged particles, or something along those lines. . . . sorry, it was a while ago that i read the report, ill go try and look it up again.
Location: Covilhã, Portugal (and sometimes in Évora)
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No need to post what the "Formula 1 Technology" book says....all has been said....but if any one wants some more info....contact Tomba cause in a the next 2 weeks I'll be sending him documents with the text from the Formula 1 technology book....noitce that It wont be a complete copy...only a copy of the most importante things....
