Performance comparison of vehicle suspensions featuring two different electrorheological shock absorbers

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel type of semi-active electrorheological (ER) shock absorber for a small-sized passenger vehicle. The field-dependent damping forces of the proposed orifice type of ER shock absorber are experimentally evaluated and compared with those of a conventional cylinder type of ER shock absorber. The governing equations of motion for a vehicle suspension system equipped with ER shock absorbers are derived and an optimal controller is designed to attenuate vibration due to bump and random road excitations. Control responses such as vertical acceleration of the vehicle body are evaluated in time and frequency domains, and comparative work is done between the orifice type and cylinder type of ER shock absorbers.

Keywords

electrorheologcal fluid shock absorber vehicle suspension semi-active suspension vibration control optimal controller

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Petek

N. K.

An electronically controlled shock absorber using electro-rheologocalfluid. SAE Technical Paper Series 920275, 1992.

Petek

N. K.

Romstadt

D. J.

Lizell

M. B.

Weyenberg

T. R.

Demonstration of an automotive semi-active suspension using electrorheological fluid. SAE Technical Paper Series 950586, 1995.

Lou

Ervin

R. D.

Filisko

F. E.

A preliminary study of electrorheological dampers

Trans. ASME, J. Fluid Engng, 1994, 116, 570–576.

Nakano

A novel semi-active control of automotive suspension using an electrorheological shock absorber. In Proceedings of 5th International Conference on

ER Fluid, MR Suspensions and Associated Technology, Sheffield, 1995, pp. 645–653.

Sims

N. D.

Stanway

Beck

S. M.

Proportional feedback control of an electro-rheological vibration damper

J. Intell. Mater. Systems Structs, 1997, 8, 426–433.

Gordaninejad

Ray

Wang

Control of forced vibration using multi-electrode electro-rheological fluid dampers

Trans. ASME, J. Vibr. Acoust., 1997, 119, 527–531.

Kamath

G. M.

Hurt

M. K.

Wereley

N. M.

Analysis and testing of Bingham plastic behavior on semi-active electrorheological fluid damper

Smart Mater. Structs, 1996, 5, 576–590.

Choi

S. B.

Choi

Y. T.

Chang

E. G.

Han

S. J.

Kim

C. S.

Control characteristics of a continuously variable ER damper

Mechatronics, 1998, 8 (2), 143–161.

Choi

S. B.

Choi

Y. T.

Park

D. W.

A sliding mode control of a full-car electrorheological suspensions system via hardware-in-the-loop simulation

Trans. ASME, J. Dynamic Systems, Measmt and Control, 2000, 122 (1), 114–121.

10.

Kim

W. K.

Design and performance analysis of semi-active ER damper with free piston and spring. MS thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon, Korea, 1999.

11.

Karnopp

D. C.

Margolis

D. L.

Rosenberg

R. C.

System dynamics. In

A Unified Approach, 1991.

12.

Chen

C. T.

Linear System Theory and Design, 1999 (Oxford University Press).

13.

Leitman

Semiactive control for vibration attenuation

J. Intell. Mater. Systems Structs, 1994, 5(5), 841–846.

14.

Nigam

N. C.

Narayanan

Applications of Random Vibrations, 1994 (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany).