Vehicle body pitch control through integration of MR damping system implemented in both vehicle suspension and front-end structure

Abstract

The current research work is directed to study and improve vehicle behavior during crashes. Hence, a crash-pitch controller integrated with Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers implemented in both vehicle suspension system and front-end structure is designed and studied. The methodology of the work is based on modeling the vehicle dynamical attitude as a half-car mathematical model that is developed with 3 degrees of freedom (DOF), longitudinal, bounce, and pitch. The model is constructed to study the vehicle’s dynamic response in a full-frontal collision against a fixed barrier. Additionally, a fuzzy logic controller is developed to integrate the suspension MR dampers with another set of MR dampers implemented within the vehicle’s front-end structure. Four different vehicle cases were discussed and compared within the simulation results of the developed model. Moreover, the four mentioned cases can be clarified as first free-rolling, second replacing the vehicle’s conventional dampers with MR dampers, third implemented MR dampers within the vehicle’s front-end structure, finally the fourth case through the integration of MR dampers implemented within both front-end structure and suspension system. Hence, the fourth case was implemented through the augmentation of simultaneous crash-pitch controllers. The simulation results showed a noticeable improvement in the front-end structure deformation as it had been reduced. Moreover, the vehicle’s body attitudes had also been improved where pitch angle had been reduced as well as its settling time. Also, pitch acceleration had been reduced which benefits human body exposure.