Int. J. of Vehicle Design, Vol. 25, No.

4, 2001

283

Active suspension of a half car model based on linear control with dynamic absorbers
T. Yoshimura, K. Sagimori and J. Hino
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokushima, Minamijosanjima 2-1, Tokushima 7708506, Japan. Email: yosimura@me.tokushima-u.ac.jp
Abstract: This paper presents an active suspension system of a half car model based on linear control with dynamic absorbers. The model is described by a nonlinear four degrees of freedom system subject to irregular inputs from a road surface. The active control is composed of a weighted sum of acceleration, velocity and displacement of the vehicle body at frontlrear suspension locations. The dynamic absorbers are added to the wheel axles in order to decrease the suspension and the tyre deflections. The simulation results indicate that the proposed active suspension is very effective in the vibration isolation.
Keywords: active suspension, dynamic absorber, half car model, ride comfort,

simulation.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: T. Yoshimura, K. Sagimori and J. Hino (2001) 'Active suspension of a half car model based on linear control with dynamic absorbers', Int. J. of Vehicle Design, Vol. 25, No. 4,

pp.283-294.

Introduction

The investigation of active suspensions of ground vehicles is recently more increasing because the active suspension is very effective to ride comfort of passengers, and the implementation becomes relatively low cost with the development of electronic and mechanical control devices. In early investigation of the active suspension, the linear active suspensions have been derived on the basis of the assumption that the vehicle dynamics were described by linear differential equations. Then, the main idea of the active suspension system was constructed by the linear quadratic control (LQ control) theory ( H k , 1986; Hrovat, 1990; Ray, 1992; Thompson, 1988; Yoshimura and Sugimoto, 1990; Yoshimura et al., 1997; Yue et al., 1989). While the vehicle dynamics are practically considered as a complicated model including the effect of non-linearity and uncertainty. The active suspension systems applying nonlinear approaches such as fuzzy reasoning, neural networks and sliding mode approaches (Lin et al., 1993; Roukieh and Titli, 1993; Yeh and Tsao, 1994; Yoshimura et al., 1995; Yoshimura et al., 1999; Moran and Nagai, 1995) have been proposed and have provided more improved performance than the linear suspension systems. However, as the modelling error caused by linear approximation is relatively small, it is a well-known fact that the linear active suspension system gives reasonable performance similar to the nonlinear one. Copyright O 2001 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

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T. Yoshimura, K. Sagimon and J. Hino

It is generally seen that the active suspension system more improves the vibration isolation of the vehicle body, but impairs the suspension and tyre deflections more than the passive suspension system. As the tyre deflection is further increased, the road holding of the wheel is less improved so that its compensation approach is necessitated. One way to compensate it is to use a dynamic absorber fitted to the axle (Hrovat, 1990; Thompson et al., 1984; Yoshimura et al., 1997b), and Yoshimura et al. (1997b) presented an approach to construct dynamic absorbers for a half car model where the natural frequency of the dynamic absorber is denoted as the first (minimum) excitation frequency from a road surface defined as v / I ( v and I are respectively vehicle speed and length between fronthear wheels). It has provided the improved performance of the road holding of the wheel and also the improved vibration isolation of the vehicle body. However, the first excitation frequency depends upon the vehicle speed v so that the approach has demerit that the dynamic absorber should be changed with time by the vehicle speed. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new active suspension system of a half car model based on the linear control with dynamic absorbers. The model is described by a nonlinear system subject to irregular inputs from a road surface. The linear control is simply constructed as a linear combination of the acceleration, velocity and displacement of the vehicle body, and the dynamic absorbers are fitted to the fronthear axles. In this paper, the parameters characterizing the dynamic absorbers are determined by minimizing the performance index.

Half car model and measurement

Consider a half car model with dynamic absorbers subject to irregular excitation from a road surface, as shown in Figure 1. The equations of motion for the vehicle body, the fronthear wheels and the dynamic absorbers are respectively given by

and the constraints are given by

Xc

= (!bxla +!axlb)/!

6c = ( X I 0 - x l b ) / f

(7)

where

mc IC
m2~9 mzb
m3a9 m3b fca, fcb C3a,C3b

mass for the vehicle body mass moment of inertia for the vehicle body masses of the fronthear wheels masses of the fronthear dynamic absorbers nonlinear damping forces of the fronthear suspensions damping coefficients of the fronthear dynamic absorbers

Active suspension of half car model based on linear control with dynamic absorbers285 k ~ ak, ~ b
k2a7 k2b

k3a, k3b

fa,fb
XC

0,
Xla. X l b

x ~ a X2b
Way W b

!a t b

spring constants of the fronthear suspensions spring constants of the fronthear tyres spring constants of the dynamic absorbers active controls at the fronthear wheels vertical displacement of the vehicle body at the centre of gravity rotary angle of the vehicle body at the centre of gravity vertical displacements of the vehicle body at the fronthear wheels vertical displacements of the fronthear wheels irregular excitations from the road surface distances of the fronthear wheels with reference to the centre of + t gravity of the vehicle body, ta tb= ..

pressure difference in the cylinder control pressure volume in the cylinder volume modulus of operating oil sectional area of the piston resistance factor

Figure 1

Vehicle model.

286

T. Yoshimura, K. Sagimori and J. Hino

As the value of p, is relatively large, the left-hand side of Equation 8 can be set to approximately zero. Defining that f i = ApiPPi.ui = ApiPui and Ayi = ~pi'rp, then f i = - ~ y i ( i l ; - i 2 i ) + ~ i=a,b (9) It is assumed that the vertical accelerations, velocities and displacements of the vehicle body at the fronthear wheels, xli(n),xli(n)and xli(n), = a, b, are respectively i measured at n-th sampling instant with the time interval At.

Design of an active suspension system

The ratios characterizing the dynamic absorbers are respectively defined as Mass ratio: ai = m3i /mzi Natural frequency ratio: vi =

JK l JE

Damping ratio: Pi = c3i /24= The linear controls at the fronthear wheels are assumed to be

where gi i = 1 3, j = a, b are constants to be determined by minimizing the following performance index,

where Av i = 1 3, j = a, b and pii = a, b are respectively weighting factors, and the further constraints are given as

where V,; and Vt; i =a, b denote respectively the mean squares calculated from the passive suspension.

Simulation and discussion

The time responses of the vehicle model are numerically computed by using the Newmark- P method (Bathe, 1982) where At is given as 1 ms. The parameters of the vehicle model for the simulation study were given by Daihatsu Motor Co., Japan. The irregular input from the road surface, wi, is assumed to be described by wi+avwi=& i = a , b

(13)

where a is a positive constant, v is the vehicle speed, and 5; is a zero-mean Gaussian random process with the correlation,

Active suspension of half car model based on linear control with dynamic absorbers287 ~[&(t)(,(.i)] =2nvD6(t-7)
= 2 m ~ 6 ( lt

fori= j for i # j

.il - t,)

where D is the strength of roughness, tl is the time difference between the frondrear wheels defined as (z, + !b)/v, and 6 is the Dirac's delta function. The damping forces of the suspension at the frondrear wheels are shown in Figure 2, and other parameters are given by mc = 464.l(kg), I, = 529.2(kgm2), m2, = 26.5(kg), m2b = 24.4 (kg), k2, = 20.6(kN/m), kIb = 15.2(kN/m), k2, = k2, = 138.2(kN/m), e ,=0.968(m), e b = 1.392(m), D = a = 0.051(llm), v = 20(m/s)

and the weighting factors of the performance index J are respectively given by

a,, = a,, = 4, = 4, = 4, = 4, = I,

pa = p, = lo- 5

where the mass ratios are given as a, = ab = 0.2 from the practical viewpoint. The four kinds of methods are presented to compare the performance. Method A: Passive suspension system without dynamic absorber Method B: Passive suspension system with dynamic absorbers Method C: Active suspension system without dynamic absorber Method D: Active suspension system with dynamic absorbers (proposed)

Front (i=a) - - - - - Rear (i=b)

-2Figure 2

Damping forces of fronthear suspensions.

288

T. Yoshimura, K. Sagimori and J. Hino

Using the measurement data for 10 minutes, the parameters of the dynamic absorbers and the linear controls are respectively determined by minimizing the performance index given as Equation 11 and the constraints given as Equation 12. The procedure is as follows: (1) the parameters of the dynamic absorbers are determined in Method B; (2) the parameters of the linear controls are determined in Method C, and (3) the parameters of the dynamic absorbers and linear controls are determined by modifying the obtained parameters of the dynamic absorbers and the linear controls obtained in Methods B and C. The parameters finally obtained are given as

The mean squares of the time responses of the vehicle body, the suspension deflections, the tyre deflections and active controls, and the performance indices obtained from four kinds of methods are listed in Table 1. The time responses of vertical and rotary accelerations of the vehicle body are respectively shown in Figures 3 and 4, and their spectral densities are respectively shown in Figures 5 and 6. It is obviously seen from Table 1 and Figures 3 and 4 that Methods C and D (active suspension systems) more improve the time responses of the vehicle body, but less improve the suspension and tyre deflections, than Methods A and B (passive suspension systems). It is shown in Figures 5 and 6 that the dynamic absorbers to be proposed here are relatively effective for reducing the amplitudes in the neighbourhood of the natural frequencies of the wheels. Finally, it is seen from the evaluated values of the performance index that Method D more improves than the other three methods, and it is concluded from the simulation result that Method D is the improved active suspension system. As the vehicle speed is changed from 2 0 4 s to lords, and from 2 0 4 s to 3 0 4 s where other parameters are fixed, the mean squares of the variables, and the performance indices are shown in Tables 2 and 3. It is seen from these Tables that Method D more improves than the other three methods, and is concluded that it has robustness to the parameter variation as the ratio of the vertical and rotary accelerations of the vehicle body defined as Method DMethod A is almost equal to the case of v = 2 0 d s shown in Table 1.
Table 1

Mean squares of the time responses of the variables, and the performance index. Method A Method B
3.64E-01 3.52E-03 1.96E-04 2.46~-01 6.36~-3-04 7.13E-06 3.75E-05 3.86E-3-05 4.04E-06 3.75E-06 0 0 1.45E+00

Method C
1.58E-01 7.84E-04 1.27E-04 1.38~-01 1.61~-04 2.41E-06 2.97E-05 3.28E-3-05 3.99506 4.43E-06 9.49E+03 1.01E+04 9.12E-01

Method D
1.3OE-01 7.76E-04 1.25E-04 1.~oE-01 1.64~-04 2.35E-06 2.94E-05 3. I 2 5 0 5 3.75506 3.81E-06 9.03E+03 9.05E+03 7.55E-01

Unit m2/s4 m2/s2 m2 rad2/s4 rad2/s2 rad2 m2 m2 m2 m2

N~ N~

XC

x,
Xc

0, 0, 0,
XI, Xlb

- xza - X2b

xza - wu x2b - wb
uu
Ub

3.95E-01 3.6OE-03 1.99E-04 2.73~01 6.27~-3-04 7.15E-06 3.81E-05 4.06E-05 4.08E-06 3.82E-06 0 0 1.60E+00

Active suspension of half car model based on linear control with dynamic absorbers291
Table 2 Mean squares of the time responses of the variables, and the performance index as the vehicle speed is varied from 2 0 d s to 1 0 d s .
Method A Method B Method C Method D Unit

Table 3 Mean squares of the time responses of the variables, and the performance index as the vehicle speed is varied from 2 0 d s to 3 0 d s .
--

Method A

Method B

Method C

~ e t h o d ~ - Unit

T. Yoshimura, K. Sagimori and J. Hino

1.5,

1.5,

Method A
,
I

Frequency (Hz)

Method B

5
I

A&"

10
I

Frequency (Hz)

15
1

20
I

25
I

1.5,

Method C
I
I

A -

-- &L-

10

Frequency (Hz)

15

20

25

Method D
Figure 5 Spectral densities of the vertical accelerations of the vehicle body by using Methods A, B, Cand D.

Active suspension of half car model based on linear control with dynamic absorbers293

Frequency (Hz) Method A

1
h

5
I

Frequency (Hz) Method B

3, " b 2m x
A

2 z 3
8
*

5
10
I

1-

a * a 2 0

me

Frequency (Hz) Method C

I
I

15
I
I

--

-1

20
I
I

25 I

3,

I-&5

10

l.ddJdh

Frequency (Hz) Method D

15

A fi

20

25

Figure 6 Spectral densities of the rotary accelerations of the vehicle body by using Methods A, B, C and D.

Conclusions

This paper proposed an active suspension of a half car model based on linear control with dynamic absorbers. The active control was determined as a linear combination of the acceleration, velocity and displacement of the vehicle body, the natural frequency of the dynamic absorber was determined based on the natural frequency of the wheel. The

294

T. Yoshimura, K. Sagimori and J. Hino

parameters characterizing the linear control were determined by minimizing t h e given performance index that was composed of the acceleration of the vehicle body and the constraints. T h e simulation result showed that the proposed active suspension with the dynamic absorbers was very effective in the vertical and rotary accelerations of the vehicle body a t the centre of gravity and the performance index than the active suspension without dynamic absorbers.

References
Bathe, K.-J. (1982) Finite Element Procedures in Engineering Analysis, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. HBc, A. (1986) 'Stochastic optimal control of vehicle with elastic body and active suspension', ASME J Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, June, Vol. 108, pp.106-110. Hrovat, D. (1990) 'Optimal active suspension structures for quarter-car vehicle models', Automatica, Vol. 26, No. 5, pp.845-860. Kandel, A. and Langholz, G. (ed.) (1993) Fuzzy Control Systems, London, CRC Press. Kurimoto, M. and Yoshimura, T. (1998) 'Active suspension of passenger cars using sliding mode controllers (based on reduced models)', Int. J. of Vehicle Design, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp.402-414. Lin, Y.-J., Lu, Y.-Q. and Padovan, J. (1993) 'Fuzzy logic control of vehicle suspension systems', Int. J. Vehicle Design, Vol. 14, Nos. 516, pp.457-470. Moran, A. and Nagai, M. (1994) 'Optimal active control of nonlinear vehicle suspensions using neural networks', J. Society of Mechanical Engineers, International Journal, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp.707-718. Roukieh, S. and Titli, A. (1993) 'Design of active and semi-active automotive suspension using fuzzy logic', IFAC 12th World Congress Preprints of Papers, Vol. 1, pp.253-257, Sydney. Thompson, A.G. and Davis, B.R. (1988) 'Optimal linear active suspension with derivative constraints and output feedback control', Vehicle System Dynamics, Vol. 17, pp.179-192. Yeh, E.C. and Tsao, Y.J. (1994) 'A fuzzy preview control scheme of active suspension', Int. J. Vehicle Design, Vol. 15, No. 112, pp.166-180. Yoshimura, T. and Sugimoto, M. (1990a), 'An active suspension for a vehicle travelling on flexible beams with an irregular surface', J. Sound and Vibration, Vol. 138, No. 3, pp.433-445. Yoshimura, T., Isari, Y., Li, Q. and Hino, J. (1997a) 'Active suspension of motor coaches using skyhook damper and fuzzy logic controls', Control Engineering Practice, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.175-184. Yoshimura, T., Nakaminami, K., and Hino, J. (1997b) 'A semi-active suspension with dynamic absorbers of ground vehicles using fuzzy reasoning', Int. J. Vehicle Design, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 19-34.