Effect of Semi-Active Front Axle Suspension Design on Vehicle Comfort and Road Holding for a Heavy Truck Volvo Group Trucks Technology

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Yarmohamadi, Yarmohamadi, author.

Contributor:

Berbyuk, Viktor

Conference Name:

SAE 2012 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress (2012-10-02 : Rosemont, Illinois, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2012

Summary:

Semi-active suspension systems for ground vehicles have been thefocus of research for several years as they offer improvements invehicle comfort and handling. This kind of suspension has attractedmore interest compared to active suspension systems especially dueto lower cost and energy consumption.In this paper the capabilities of a semi-active front axlesuspension are investigated for a commercial vehicle. A half-truckmodel of a 4x2 tractor and semitrailer combination is developed inMatlab/Simulink for this purpose. Also, a 2 DOF roll plane model isconsidered to capture the roll motion of the vehicle body mass.Employing the above-mentioned models, results from on-off andcontinuous variable semi-active damping systems are compared to theones from the passive suspension system according to ride comfortand handling safety characteristics. Simulations are performed inthe time domain with realistic road-induced excitations, namelyrandom road and single/double-sided bump inputs, applied on thewheel road contact points.Ride comfort is evaluated using the acceleration signals in thecab by studying acceleration peak values as well as PSD plots ofthe iso-filtered accelerations. Cab center of gravity pitch andbody roll motions are also assessed. Furthermore, handling in termsof road-holding characteristics is examined by means of analyzingdynamic tire forces while monitoring rattle space (suspensiondeflection) simultaneously.The control strategies of the semi-active damping are based onthe skyhook theory, in which the damping coefficient is eitherswitchable or continuously controlled. Skyhook, groundhook andhybrid control laws have been implemented and evaluated in thevehicle models.The results of the comparison analysis that are presentedquantitatively and qualitatively clearly show the great influenceof the semi-active dampers on the vehicle dynamic properties forthe conducted simulations. With continuous semi-active dampersaccelerations in the cab are drastically decreased particularly upto front axle resonance frequency. Hence, unlike passive suspensionthat is a compromise between ride comfort and handling, semi-activesuspension facilitates enhancing both target criteria

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2012-01-1931

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license