Continuous Damping Control (CDC) is a General Motors chassis and suspension technology that optimizes a vehicle’s ride and handling to deliver the best possible driving experience.
How It Works
CDC is comprised of three primary components:
- Sensors at each wheel that detect relative wheel-to-body position sensors
- A dedicated control unit with integrated sensors that detect heave, pitch and body roll motion
- Active dampers with electronically-controlled valves that are individually controlled every two milliseconds in a continuous range between the softest and firmest damping
CDC actuators sensors and hardware
The process to actively control dampers works in the following sequence:
- Sensors collect data and feed it to the vehicle’s ECU
- Serving as the central repository of the data, the ECU evaluates the data to determine the ideal damping force for every individual wheel
- The system adjusts compression and rebound to provide optimum damping within a range of characteristic curves, from hard/safety-oriented to soft/comfort-oriented
- The damping program calculated by the ECU is then sent to each damper
- Valves within the damper carry out the damping requirements
- The cycle repeats
The CDC system adjusting compression and rebound to provide optimum damping within a range of characteristic curves, from hard/safety-oriented to soft/comfort-oriented, with the complete process (loop) taking place within two milliseconds.
A vehicle-specific characteristic adjustment can also take place via the valve system.
Dampers
CDC is capable of working with dampers with internal or external valves.
Advantages & Benefits
According to automotive supplier ZF, Continuous Damping Control offers the following benefits over a traditional damping system:
- Greater safety thanks to optimized wheel damping
- Enhanced driving comfort and dynamics, e.g. during lane-change
- Reduced roll, pitch and vertical motion
- Precise tracking during acceleration
- Superior handling
- Improved cornering stability
- Shorter breaking distances thanks to better road contact
- Continuous adjustment in real time
Other Names
Continuous Damping Control is sometimes also referred to as:
- Electronically controlled continuous damping
- Real-time damping suspension
- Real-time chassis damping system
Vehicle Applications
Typically assigned RPO code F45, Continuous Damping Control is available on the following models:
Chevrolet
- None
Cadillac
Buick
- Buick Regal and Regal GS (fifth-generation)
- Buick Regal GS (2018 and newer)
- Introduces second-generation CDC
- Buick LaCrosse (2017 and newer)
- Buick Enclave (2018 and newer)
GMC
- GMC Acadia (second-generation)
Generations
The 2018 Buick Regal introduced the second generation Continuous Damping Control system that’s capable of 500 adjustments per second. All prior models used the first-generation of the system.
Related Technologies
The GM Adaptive Ride Control is believed to be a variation of Continuous Damping Control modified for body-on-frame vehicles.
Meanwhile, GM Magnetic Ride Control is an entirely different system. Despite being based on similar principles as CDC, Magnetic Ride Control uses a different set of technologies, most notably magneto-rheological shock absorbers, to carry out the adaptive functionality.
