Contact Patch Lateral Compliance – Suspension KPI

Contact patch compliance is a metric to understand the level of lateral deformation in a suspension system when subject to a lateral cornering force at the tyre contact patch.  It is measured in millimetres of lateral contact patch deflection per kilo-Newton of lateral force, mm/kN.  Some suspension designers prefer to use its inverse, contact patch stiffness; both are given in RACE reports.  The contact patch compliance reported is a ‘projected’ contact patch compliance from the wheel centre and it does not include any lateral wheel or tyre stiffness.  It is purely the contribution of the suspension system to the overall contact patch compliance.

Contact patch compliance is one of the key contributors to the steering connection and turn in response of a vehicle.

This KPI page is only a brief overview. To learn more about this and other KPIs, including KPI values used in industry, real-world examples and best-practice guidance, please refer to our courses below.

—

ENHANCE YOUR CHASSIS AND SUSPENSION SYSTEMS EXPERTISE WITH CUTTING-EDGE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS AND SUSPENSION COURSES

AUTOMOTIVE/MOTORSPORT SUSPENSION AND CHASSIS SYSTEMS – DESIGN AND ENGINEERING FUNDAMENTALS COURSE

SUSPENSION PERFORMANCE TUNING USING MULTIBODY SIMULATION SOFTWARE COURSE

START USING RACE SOFTWARE TODAY WITH A FREE TRIAL ON ALL PLANS