Title: Truck cab suspension design: optimisation and vibration control

Authors: Rick T. Tong, Farid Amirouche

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Illinois at Chicago, 842 West Taylor Street, ERF 2039, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Illinois at Chicago, 842 West Taylor Street, ERF 2039, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA

Abstract: This paper addresses the cab suspension design and its dynamic performance when subjected to random road excitation conditions. The selected vehicle model is planar and includes a cab with two degrees of freedom, pitch and vertical displacement. The vehicle chassis and trailer are allowed to rotate about their respective axes. The cab suspension is modelled by a set of two linear springs and dampers. However, their coefficients are time variant and dependent on the objective functions and the constraints used. Based on the performance indexes used a suspension design strategy is proposed. The analytical investigation shows that the best driving comfort is obtained when both the angular and vertical acceleration of the cab are optimised. The objective of the cab suspension is two-fold: one objective is to improve ride quality, and the second is to minimise structure stress and fatigue. This paper addresses a comparative study of ride performance, by minimising the angular acceleration of the cab, its vertical displacement, velocity, acceleration, and its rate of change (jerk) using a constrained optimisation technique.

Keywords: truck cabs; suspension design; heavy trucks; optimisation; ride comfort; vibration control; hevy vehicles; ride quality; cab suspension; vehicle modelling; structure stress; fatigue.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.1998.054500

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 1998 Vol.5 No.3/4, pp.236 - 260

Published online: 18 Jun 2013 *

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