AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF THE HUB MOTOR WEIGHT ON VEHICLE SUSPENSION AND PASSENGER COMFORT

One of the most critical components in a vehicle is the suspension system, as it is responsible for stability and handling in the vehicle structure and thus ensuring the passenger's comfort because it absorbs shocks caused by different road conditions and prevents them from reaching the passengers' seats. A passive suspension system with eight degrees of freedom was investigated and evaluated in two cases in this research: the first case using standard wheels the second case using hub motors. To complete this work, the equations of motion of the suspension system were shown then the full model construction was implemented using Matlab. It is known that the hub motor weight is bigger than the standard wheel weight that's why this work obtain a little bad effect on vehicle performance when using hub motors, an active suspension system that can improve vehicle performance and ride comfort is recommended.