Semi-Active Suspension Systems for Road and Off-Road Vehicles - an Overview

Kurzfassung

Road vehicles as well as off-road vehicles are subject to vibrations which can have severe effects on drivers, passengers and load. Ride quality is influenced by vehicle vibrations which may be induced by a variety of sources including roadway roughness or off-road terrain, or they may be internally generated forces produced by vehicle subsystem such as the powertrain. Both short but high vibration peaks and long-duration, high-frequency vibrations can cause discomfort, alertness problems, or in extreme cases health threat or even disorientation of passengers. Most ground vehicles are equipped with passive spring and damping devices which have reached a high level of sophistication. However, they can usually only be tuned to a good performance in a relatively small operational range (weight, speed, excitation level) or they perform only moderately well over a wide operational range. Semi-active suspension based on dampers, a concept also known as active damping, has reached production stage for luxury vehicles, trucks and trains. It has proven to be an effective way to cope with a number of conflicting requirements, especially comfort, ride handling, ground contact of the tyre, road-friendliness, and it works well for a wide range of applications and over a large operational range. The paper will give an overview of active damping techniques, present some state-of-the-art approaches for control and actuation, especially in coordination with other active chassis control approaches, and give examples of applications for ground vehicles.