Design of electro-mechanical height adjustment system for multi-link suspension

Electro-mechanical height adjustment suspension system is a promising automotive technology. It works on the ground clearance of the vehicle, reducing the aerodynamic drag with not negligible benefits in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions; besides these advantages, it improves also the versatility in the use of the vehicle. The present work examines in a systematic way the state of art of the existing solutions, summarizing the main feature, the working principle and the architetures, with particular attention to the electro-mechanical systems, which represent the best compromise between functionality, high reliability and low costs. The aim of this master thesis is the modeling and the design of a reversible eccentric electro-mechanical height adjustment system for a multi-link suspension (Alfa Romeo Stelvio rear suspension), that permits to obtain the best results with references to the power consumption and actuation speed. The optimized design has been realized by running numerical simulation using parametrized models to evaluate performances and considering the constraints due to the implementation of the actuator in a existing vehicle. Furthermore, the different components of the device have been sized and then detail drawings are obtained. The last step of the project consists in an experimental validation of the model.