Abstract
The kinematic performance of a torsion beam suspension is determined by the elastic properties of the torsion beam. In the design phase, the numerical analysis such as Finite Element Analysis is usually utilized in order to estimate this performance. However, most suspension designers cannot directly perform this analysis because specific skills are required to achieve sophisticated operation. In order to overcome this problem, we developed a design program of the torsion beam suspension based on the concept of First Order Analysis. In this paper, we introduce an optimization method based on the Response Surface Methodology into this design program. Further, we apply this method to the optimization problem of the configuration of the torsion beam and confirm the usefulness of this program.
