Performance evaluation of electronic control suspension featuring vehicle ER dampers

This paper presents ride comfort and driving stability performances of electronic control suspension (ECS) equipped with controllable electrorheological (ER) damper and appropriate control strategy. In order to achieve this goal, a cylindrical type ER damper which is applicable to Macpherson strut type suspension of a mid-sized passenger vehicle is designed and manufactured on the basis of the required damping force level of an existing passenger vehicle. After experimentally evaluating the field-dependent damping force and dynamic characteristics of the controllable ER damper, ECS consisting of sprung mass, spring, tire and controller is established in order to investigate the ride comfort and driving stability performances. On the basis of the governing equation of motion of the suspension system, five control strategies (soft, hard, comfort, sports and optimal mode) are formulated. The proposed control strategies are then experimentally realized with the quarter-vehicle ECS system. Control performances such as vertical acceleration of the car body and tire deflection are evaluated in both time and frequency domains under various road conditions. In addition, a comparative work is undertaken to investigate inherent control characteristics of each control strategy.     

OPTIMAL DAMPING MATCHING Of SHOCK ABSORBER FOR A LIGHT TRUCK SUSPENSION SYSTEM

阻尼匹配是制约车辆悬架系统减振器设计的关键问题.以某轻型卡车为研究对象,利用MATLAB软件建立了悬架阻尼优化设计的半车模型.采用车体垂向加速度、俯仰角加速度和车轮动载均方根值作为评价指标,利用线性加权和法建立了悬架阻尼优化设计的目标函数.在随机路面激励下,对悬架系统阻尼进行了优化匹配和分析,并通过实车实验验证了优化效果.研究结果表明,悬架阻尼的匹配优化可有效提高车辆的行驶平顺性,从而为车辆悬架的动态设计提供有益参考.     

The ride comfort vs. handling compromise for off-road vehicles

When designing vehicle suspension systems, it is well-known that spring and damper characteristics required for good handling on a vehicle are not the same as those required for good ride comfort. Any choice of spring and damper characteristic is therefore necessarily a compromise between ride comfort and handling. The compromise is more pronounced on off-road vehicles, as they require good ride comfort over rough off-road terrain, as well as acceptable on-road handling. In this paper, the ride comfort vs. handling compromise for off-road vehicles is investigated by means of three case studies. All three case studies indicate that the spring and damper charcteristics required for ride comfort and handling lie on opposite extremes of the design space. Design criteria for a semi-active suspension system, that could significantly reduce, or even eliminate the ride comfort vs. handling compromise, are proposed. The system should be capable of switching safely and predictably between a stiff spring and high damping mode (for handling) as well as a soft spring and low damping mode (for ride comfort). A possible solution to the compromise, in the form of a four state, semi-active hydropneumatic spring-damper system, is proposed.     

基于分数阶磁流变液阻尼器模型的车辆悬架组合控制

磁流变液阻尼器的分数阶Bingham模型结构形式简单, 而且可以更好地描述系统的滞回特性. 建立了含有分数阶Bingham模型的单自由度1/4车辆悬架系统模型, 利用磁流变液阻尼器对在路面简谐激励下的非线性车辆悬架系统进行振动控制. 研究了含有分数阶Bingham模型的悬架系统在天棚阻尼半主动控制下的主共振响应, 利用平均法得到了系统的近似解析解. 求解了系统定常解的幅频响应方程, 并根据李雅普诺夫稳定性理论得到了悬架系统的稳定性条件. 通过绘制数值解和解析解的幅频响应曲线对比图, 验证了近似解析解的正确性. 利用簧载质量垂直方向的加速度均方根值分析了半主动控制对车辆乘坐舒适性的影响, 发现天棚阻尼半主动控制策略在低频激励区域反而会降低车辆的乘坐舒适性. 因此提出了一种被动控制与半主动控制相结合的组合控制策略, 并分析了半主动控制参数对振动控制效果的影响. 分析结果表明, 该组合控制策略不但能够提高车辆的乘坐舒适性, 而且能有效抑制悬架系统的主共振振动幅值.      

Suspension settings for optimal ride comfort of off-road vehicles travelling on roads with different roughness and speeds

This paper reports on an investigation to determine the spring and damper settings that will ensure optimal ride comfort of an off-road vehicle, on different road profiles and at different speeds. These settings are required for the design of a four stage semi-active hydro-pneumatic spring damper suspension system (4S₄). Spring and damper settings in the 4S₄ can be set either to the ride mode or the handling mode and therefore a compromise ride-handling suspension is avoided. The extent to which the ride comfort optimal suspension settings vary for roads of different roughness and varying speeds and the levels of ride comfort that can be achieved, are addressed. The issues of the best objective function to be used when optimising and if a single road profile and speed can be used as representative conditions for ride comfort optimisation of semi-active suspensions, are dealt with. Optimisation is performed with the Dynamic-Q algorithm on a Land Rover Defender 110 modelled in MSC.ADAMS software for speeds ranging from 10 to 50 km/h. It is found that optimising for a combined driver plus rear passenger seat weighted root mean square vertical acceleration rather than using driver or passenger values only, returns the best results. Results indicate that optimisation of suspension settings using one road and speed will improve ride comfort on the same road at different speeds. These settings will also improve ride comfort for other roads at the optimisation speed and other speeds, although not as much as when optimisation has been done for the particular road. For improved ride comfort damping generally has to be lower than the standard (compromised) setting, the rear spring as soft as possible and the front spring ranging from as soft as possible to stiffer depending on road and speed conditions. Ride comfort is most sensitive to a change in rear spring stiffness.     

Semi-active hydro-gas suspension system for a tracked vehicle

A semi-active hydro-gas suspension is proposed for a tracked vehicle to improve ride comfort performance, without compromising the road holding and load carrying capabilities of the passive suspension. This is achieved through an active damper used in parallel with a gas spring. The suspension damper parameters are varied by a control mechanism based on sky-hook damping theory, which alters the flow characteristics. A damper prototype has been developed, tested for its flow characteristics, after which it has been integrated into an existing hydro-gas suspension system. An analytical model has been proposed from first principles rather than developing a phenomenological model based on experimental characteristics. This model is validated with experiments carried out on a suspension test rig. In order to compare the performance with the original passive system, an in-plane vehicle model is developed and the simulations clearly show that the semi-active system performance is superior to the passive system.     

Improving off-road vehicle handling using an active anti-roll bar

To design a vehicle’s suspension system for a specific, well defined road type or manoeuvre is not a challenge any more. As the application profile of the vehicle becomes wider, it becomes more difficult to find spring and damper characteristics to achieve an acceptable compromise between ride comfort and handling. For vehicles that require both good on- and off-road capabilities, suspension design poses a significant challenge. Vehicles with good off-road capabilities usually suffer from poor on-road handling. These vehicles are designed with a high centre of gravity due to the increased ground clearance, soft suspension systems and large wheel travel to increase ride comfort and ensure traction on all the wheels. All of these characteristics contribute to bad handling and increased rollover propensity even on good level roads. It is expect from these vehicles to have the same handling characteristics as a normal on-road vehicle. This paper analyses the use of an active anti-roll bar as a means of improving the handling of an off-road vehicle without sacrificing ride comfort. The proposed solution is simulated, designed, manufactured, implemented and tested to quantify the effect of the active anti-roll bar on both the handling and ride comfort of an off-road vehicle.     

Hydro-gas suspension system for a tracked vehicle: Modeling and analysis

Tracked vehicles fitted with torsion bar suspensions are limited in their ability to achieve high mobility. This limitation is due to the linear characteristics and the consequent poorer ride performance. Hydro-gas suspensions due to their inherent non-linear behavior can provide higher mobility and better ride comfort performance. The hydro-gas suspension model has usually been developed from experimental force-displacement characteristics, which requires availability of suspension hardware.In this paper, a hydro-gas suspension system is modeled using polytropic gas compression model to represent the spring characteristics, while the damper orifices are modeled using hydraulic conductance. The analytical model is then validated with experiments individually for spring and damper flow characteristics and then as a suspension-wheel assembly in a test rig. The validated suspension model is incorporated in an in-plane model. Using this model, simulation is carried out for sinusoidal inputs of different wavelengths, amplitudes and vehicle speeds. The simulation model is validated with data measured on a vehicle traversing an APG course. The proposed model agrees very well with the measured data. Based on the validated model, studies on the influence of suspension parameters on the ride comfort of a tracked vehicle are carried out.     

Effectiveness evaluation of hydro-pneumatic and semi-active cab suspension for the improvement of ride comfort of agricultural tractors

Advances have been made to agricultural tractors to improve their ride comfort. However, the ride comfort of tractors is relatively low compared to that of passenger vehicles. Many researchers have developed various types of suspension for tractors. While most studies have focused on the geometry of the suspension, few studies have been carried out on the development of a control algorithm for tractor suspension.In this paper, to improve the ride comfort of an agricultural tractor, a hydro-pneumatic suspension model with a semi-active suspension control is developed with computer simulation, and the effectiveness of the suspension is evaluated before the vehicle is equipped with the suspension and placed into production.An optimal control algorithm for the semi-active suspension of the tractor is developed using a linear quadratic Gaussian. In the simulation, a hydro-pneumatic suspension system model is developed using SimulationX and is applied to a full vehicle model using MATLAB/Simulink. The suspension is assessed by experiments and simulations. The ride comfort using the ride comfort index according to ISO 2631 is evaluated by comparing a vehicle with a passive cab suspension to that with a hydro-pneumatic suspension applied with the semi-active control.     

Stochastic optimal active control of a half-car nonlinear suspension under random road excitation

The random response analysis and the stochastic optimal active control of a half-car model with nonlinear suspension stiffness and damping traversing a rough road are studied in this paper. The road roughness height is modeled as the output of a first-order linear filter to Gaussian white noise. Considering the hysteretic nonlinear stiffness and the square damping of the vehicle model, the response statistics of the nonlinear suspension with active control are obtained by using the equivalent linearization method. The performance indexes of the active suspension are evaluated and compared with those of the corresponding passive suspension. It is found that the nonlinear active suspension gives a better vehicle performances like ride comfort, suspension stroke and overall performance. Finally, the theoretical results are verified through Monte Carlo simulation.     

Evolutionary algorithm-based PID controller tuning for nonlinear quarter-car electrohydraulic vehicle suspensions

The basic challenge associated with the design of vehicle suspension system is the attainment of an optimal trade-off between the various design objectives. This study presents the design of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for a quarter-car active vehicle suspension system (AVSS) using evolutionary algorithms (EA) such as the particle swarm optimization (PSO), genetic algorithm (GA) and differential evolution (DE). Each of the EA-based PID controllers showed overall improvement in suspension travel, ride comfort, settling time and road holding from the manually tuned controller and the passive vehicle suspension system. These improvements were, however, achieved at the cost of increased actuator force, power consumption and spool-valve displacement. DE-optimized PID control resulted in the best minimized suspension performance, followed by the GA and PSO, respectively. Frequency-domain analysis showed that all the signals were attenuated within the whole body vibration frequency range and the EA-optimized controllers had RMS frequency weighted body acceleration of the vehicle within allowable limits for vibration exposure. Robustness analysis of the DE-optimized PID-controlled AVSS to model uncertainties is carried out in the form of variation in vehicle sprung mass loading, tyre stiffness and speed.     

Development and experimental evaluation of translational semi-active dampers on a high mobility off-road vehicle

This paper describes the further development and experimental evaluation of two-state semi-active translational dampers on a 6×6 high mobility off-road vehicle. As only ride comfort was enhanced during previous work, the low-speed damping characteristics on the semi-active damper was increased in order to improve vehicle handling. The existing passive dampers, as normally fitted to the test vehicle, were modified to the semi-active configuration by adding a bypass assembly and a controllable valve. Experimental work included driving over various repeatable surfaces at different speeds and executing severe lane change manoeuvres. Results indicated that both handling and ride comfort were improved when selecting the semi-active configuration.     

Semi-active hydropneumatic spring and damper system

This paper is concerned with the development of a semi-active hydropneumatic spring and damper system, comprising of a two state hydropneumatic spring and a two state hydraulic damper. The system was specifically developed to improve the ride comfort and handling of large off-road vehicles. The suspension requirements for good ride comfort and handling for heavy off-road vehicles are discussed with special reference to the advantages of semi-active hydropneumatic springs and semi-active dampers. The layout and functioning of an experimental spring and damper unit used for laboratory tests are discussed. Spring and damper characteristics, as well as valve response times for both the semi-active spring and semi-active damper were determined. A single degree of freedom test rig with a sprung mass of 3 tons was used to perform first order ride comfort tests. Tests include step response and random input response. The test rig was also used to evaluate semi-active control strategies for both spring and damper as well as a control strategy for implementing ride height adjustment without using an external hydraulic pump.     

Criteria for handling measurement

Both handling and ride comfort play an important role in the performance of a vehicle, usually resulting in a compromised suspension. To improve this situation, a two-stage, semi-active hydro-pneumatic spring–damper system has been developed. The suspension system enables either good ride comfort for a compliant suspension or good handling when changed to a hard setting. The question that arises is, what measures can be applied to determine when a switchover between the two settings should occur. The frequency weighted mean square value of the vertical acceleration is a well-known criterion for ride comfort. For handling, several criteria have been put forward, which are to a more or lesser extent dependent on driver input. This paper considers the metrics that have been used for measuring handling and pays special attention to roll angle as a valid criterion. Results of tests performed on three different vehicles are presented. The results indicate that roll angle, lateral acceleration and yaw rate are interrelated for the tracks investigated and this is apparently also true for severe handling manoeuvres such as the double lane change. These observations suggest that roll angle is a suitable metric to measure handling and that it can be used to determine the moment of switchover if limits of acceptability are set.     

Heat transfer effects on hydropneumatic suspension systems

One of the problems experienced on hydropneumatic suspension systems, is the effect of temperature change on the spring characteristic, resulting in variations in spring rate and ride height. This problem can be analysed using an appropriate heat transfer model. Two major heat transfer modes are investigated, i.e. heat transfer between the gas and its surroundings and heat transfer between the damper oil and the gas. The analyses performed include the determination of the dynamic spring force characteristic, the effect of heat build-up on the spring force characteristic and the effect of heat build-up on the performance of the hydropneumatic spring and damper unit during vehicle tests. Mathematical modelling of the spring characteristic is performed by solving the energy equation for a gas in a closed container using the thermal time constant approach. The Benedict–Webb–Rubin equation of state is used for real gas behaviour. The mathematical model is verified against experimental data and good correlation is achieved. It is shown that hydropneumatic suspension systems have a significant amount of inherent damping due to heat transfer which produces no nett temperature change or heat build-up. The effect of heat build-up in the damper on the spring force characteristic is determined by laboratory tests. It is shown that heat generation in the damper, accompanied by a rise in gas temperature, has a detrimental effect on the spring force characteristic. Tests performed on experimental hydropneumatic spring and damper systems fitted to a test vehicle indicate that the effect is smaller in practice than anticipated. Heat build-up is strongly influenced by terrain roughness, vehicle speed, mission profile and damping levels.     

Benchmarking of adjoint sensitivity-based optimization techniques using a vehicle ride case study

Several studies on multibody dynamics optimization have been conducted. One important limitation of these studies is their computational e?ciency, especially when optimizing a complex system’s performance. The co-authors developed a very e?cient optimization technique based on an adjoint sensitivity analysis methodology. The scope of this article is to validate this technique by conducting a benchmark analysis against some of the most popular optimization methods, including gradient-based optimization using finite differences, design of experiment using optimal Latin hypercube, and design of experiment using full factorial design matrix. A vehicle system is used as a case study for optimizing its ride comfort.     

车辆主动悬架设计的约束H∞控制方法

针对线性离散时间系统,研究其时域硬约束下的H∞输出反馈控制问题。假定外界扰动能量有限,基于线性矩阵不等式处理方法,提出并证明了时域硬约束下H∞输出反馈控制器存在的充分条件,并应用于车辆主动悬架设计。四分之一车辆模型数值仿真结果表明,即使车辆模型参数存在不确定性,本文提出的控制器在提高车辆乘坐舒适性的同时,仍能很好地兼顾车辆的其他性能要求。     

Optimal control of the dynamic stability for robotic vehicles in rough terrain

In this paper, we mount semi-active suspensions between the wheels and platform of a robotic vehicle to absorb the vibrations caused by movement over rough terrain. The semi-active suspension consists of a spring and a magneto-rheological damper. By combining the dynamic model of the suspended robotic vehicle and the control model of the damper, we propose a new methodology to evaluate the dynamic stability of the vehicle. The model considers the configuration of semi-active suspensions and the road-holding ability of robotic vehicles. Based on the stability criterion, we use the particle swarm optimization method to search the optimum semi-active damping characteristics. The control model of the semi-active damper is checked by sinusoidal response analysis. To verify the dynamic stability criterion and the control method, we evaluate the proposed methodology by simulating a rough pavement condition and comparing the effectiveness of the method to a passive suspension. The results show that the proposed stability criterion is feasible, and the optimal control method yields a substantially improved dynamic stability when the vehicle moves through rough terrain.     

Optimal vehicle suspension characteristics for increased structural fatigue life

Heavy off-road vehicle suspension systems face unique challenges. The ride comfort versus handling compromise in these vehicles has been frequently investigated using mathematical optimisation. Further challenges exist due to the large variations in vehicle sprung mass. A passive suspension system can only provide optimal isolation at a single payload. The designer of such a suspension system must therefore make a compromise between designing for a fully-laden or unladen payload state. This work deals with suspension optimisation for vehicle structural life. The paper mainly addresses two questions: (1) What are the suspension characteristics required to ensure optimal isolation of the vehicle structure from road loads? and (2) If such optimal suspension characteristics can be found, how sensitive are they to changes in vehicle payload? The study aims to answer these questions by examining a Land Rover Defender 110 as test vehicle. An experimentally validated non-linear seven degree-of-freedom mathematical model of the test vehicle is constructed for the use in sensitivity studies. Mathematical optimisation is performed using the model in order to find the suspension characteristics for optimal structural life for the vehicle under consideration. Sensitivity studies are conducted to determine the robustness of the optimal characteristics and their sensitivity to vehicle payload variation. Recommendations are made for suspension characteristic selection for optimal structural life.     

滞回摩擦型调谐惯质阻尼器结构隔震研究

本文研究一种新型非线性阻尼器——滞回摩擦型调谐惯质阻尼器(HFTID)在工程结构抗震控制中的应用。HFTID由调谐惯质阻尼器(TID)和滞回弹簧摩擦元件并联组成。首先通过谐波平衡方法推导了HFTID单自由度系统力与位移的传递率。然后对HFTID进行了最佳调谐参数优化,得到HFTID最优参数的近似表达式,比较了HFTID和TID振动控制系统的减振效果。结果表明,HFTID相比TID可以进一步降低振动控制系统的传递率。最后,以一栋多层隔震结构为例,将HFTID与TID的隔震效果进行了对比,结果表明,HFTID相比TID在降低地震响应峰值和均方根值方面具有更大优势,验证了HFTID在降低地震响应方面的有效性和实用性。HFTID在建筑和桥梁结构抗震、车辆悬挂系统和其他机械隔震问题上具有潜在的应用前景。