• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.453-458
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• 2008

Under driving condition, A vehicle experiences various kinds of loads, which brings on the buckling and fracture of suspension systems. Lower control arm (LCA), which consists of 2 bush joints and 1 ball joint connection, is the one of the most important parts in the suspension system. The bush joints absorb the impact load and reduce the vibration from the road. When analyzing the LCA behavior, it is important to understand the material properties and boundary conditions of bushing systems correctly, because of the nonlinearity characteristics of the rubber. In this paper, in order to predict the large scale deformation of the LCA more precisely, three factors are newly suggested, that is, coupling of bush stiffness between translation and rotation, bush extraction force and maximum rotation angle of ball joint. LCA stiffness is estimated by CAE and component test. Analysis and test results are almost same and the validity of considering three factors in LCA analysis is verified.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.139-142
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• 2003

In this study, casting/forging process was used to produce an aluminum lower control arm for automobiles. Firstly, casting experiments were carried out to get an enhanced preform for forging the lower control arm. In the casting experiment, the effect of an additive, Sr, on the mechanical properties such as tensile strength and elongation and the microstructure of a cast preform were investigated. And a finite element analysis was peformed to determine an optimal configuration of the cast preform. Lastly, a forging experiment was carried out to make the final product of aluminum lower control arm by using the above cast preform. In the casting experiments, when 0.025% Sr was added into molten A356, the maximum values of tensile strength and elongation of the cast preform were obtained. In the forging experiment, It was confirmed that the optimal configuration of a cast preform predicted by FE analysis was very useful. The cast/forged product using designed preform was made without any defects.