Performance evaluation of a quarter-vehicle MR suspension system with different tire pressure

Abstract

This paper evaluates performance of a quarter-vehicle magneto-rheological (MR) suspension system with respect to different tire pressure. In order to achieve this goal, controllable MR damper that satisfies design specifications for a midsized commercial passenger vehicle is designed and manufactured based on the optimized damping force levels and mechanical dimensions. After experimentally evaluating the field-dependent characteristics of the manufactured MR damper, the quarter-vehicle suspension system consisting of sprung mass, spring, tire and the MR damper is constructed in order to investigate the ride comfort. After deriving the equations of the motion for the proposed quarter-vehicle MR suspension system, vertical tire stiffness with respect to different tire pressure is experimentally identified. The skyhook controller is then implemented for the realization of quarter-vehicle MR suspension system. Ride comfort characteristics such as vertical acceleration RMS (root mean square) and WRMS (weighted RMS) of sprung mass are evaluated under bump and random road conditions using a quarter-vehicle test facility.