Title: Preview control for a semi-active suspension system

Authors: A.M.A. Soliman, D.A. Crolla

Addresses: Automotive and Tractor Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Minia, Egypt. ' Dept. of Mech. Eng., University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

Abstract: The use of preview, i.e. |look-ahead|, information about the road surface input, has been shown to offer substantial performance benefits for fully active and limited bandwidth active suspension systems. This paper investigates whether similar levels of performance improvements can be obtained for semi-active systems, bearing in mind this class of system is only capable of dissipating energy, in contrast to active systems which can also input energy. The study is theoretical and is based on a quarter-car model. The Pade approximation technique is used to represent the effect of preview time associated with the look-ahead sensor information about the ground input. The results reveal an important finding, i.e. that the semi-active system with preview provides the same level of performance as the fully active system without preview.

Keywords: control law; damping; equations of motion; look-ahead preview; Pade approximation; rms values; semi-active suspension; preview control; vehicle suspension; sensor information; vehicle design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1996.061967

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1996 Vol.17 No.4, pp.384 - 397

Published online: 28 May 2014 *

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