65 / 2021-03-29 16:25:49

High-performance control system for vehicle suspension using passive negative stiffness and semi-active damping.

negative stiffness,,vehicle suspension,,semi-active damper,active control

Vehicle System dynamics and Control

Among passive, semi-active and active vehicle suspension systems, active suspension can achieve the best vibration control performances. However, high-energy consumption and high-complexity of active suspension hinder its wide applications. This paper proposes a novel semi-active control method based on a passive negative stiffness and a semi-active damper, which aims to compensate for the performance gap between traditional semi-active suspension and active suspension. With the help of negative stiffness, the clipping phenomenon of a semi-active damper in target control force tracking can be removed. As a result, the proposed vehicle suspension system can perfectly generate the theoretical control forces calculated by an active control algorithm and achieve a control performance comparable to that of an active suspension. The performance advantages of the proposed suspension system are validated through a series of numerical simulations. The optimal selection of design parameters is discussed with respect to different control algorithms (LQR and skyhook) and performance indices of ride comfort and road holding.