Title: Semi-active control of automotive suspension systems with magneto-rheological dampers

Authors: Alan Hiu-Fung Lam, Wei-Hsin Liao

Addresses: Materials and Structures Laboratory, Department of Automation and Computer-Aided Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong. Materials and Structures Laboratory, Department of Automation and Computer-Aided Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

Abstract: This paper is aimed to develop semi-active control for automotive suspension systems with magneto-rheological (MR) fluid dampers. A two degree-of-freedom quarter car model is considered. A mathematical model of MR fluid damper is adopted. In this study, there are two nested controllers including system controller and damper controller. For the system controller, a model-reference sliding mode controller is developed for considering loading uncertainty to result in a robust control system. In order to choose a good reference model, the single-degree-of-freedom skyhook system is analysed. For the damper controller, the continuous-state control is used to track the actual damping force to the desired damping force. The transmissibilities of the MR suspension system are investigated. The performances of the MR suspension systems are evaluated by computer simulation with bump and random excitations. The effectiveness of the MR suspension system is also demonstrated via hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) with sinusoidal excitation.

Keywords: automotive suspension; magneto-rheological damper; semi-active control; sliding mode control; skyhook.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2003.003652

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2003 Vol.33 No.1/2/3, pp.50 - 75

Published online: 28 Sep 2003 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article