Abstract
Body-on-frame type vehicle has a set of frame bushes between body and frame for vibration isolation. Such frame bushes are important vibration transmission paths to passenger space for excitations during driving. In order to reduce the vibration level of passenger space, therefore, change of complex stiffness of the frame bushes is more efficient than modification of other parts of the vehicle such as body, frame and suspension. The purpose of this study is to reduce the vibration level for ride comfort by optimization of complex stiffness of frame bushes. In order to do this, a simple finite element vehicle model was constructed and complex stiffness of the frame bushes was set to be design variables. The objective function was defined to reflect frequency dependence of passenger ride comfort. Genetic algorithm and sub-structure synthesis were applied for minimization of the objective function. After optimization level at a position of interest on the car body was reduced by about 43.7 % in RMS value. Causes for optimization results are discussed.