Investigation of inerter-based suspension systems for heavy vehicles

Abstract

The inerter is a two-terminal component that can be added to the spring-and-damper configuration of a suspension system. It has the property that the force exerted is proportional to the relative acceleration at its terminals. Studies have demonstrated the inerter’s benefit of providing superior vibration isolation when it is used in the vehicle suspension of passenger cars. However, similar benefit on another common vehicle class on the roads, namely heavy vehicles, remain to be shown, as these vehicles have vastly different parameter values than passenger cars. This study is an investigation on the performance improvement brought by an inerter in the suspension of common heavy vehicles. In the study, the parameter values of a truck and a bus were adopted in the quarter vehicle model with two different spring-damper-inerter configurations (parallel and serial inerter), and the improvements in vibration isolation and road holding capability were determined by optimization of inertance. Results show that the inerter is similarly effective in providing the said improvements when implemented on heavy vehicles instead of on passenger cars, judging from reductions in sprung mass acceleration and dynamic tire load. It is also observed that the performance benefit is associated with larger optimum inertance than that for passenger cars. Overall, the inerter has been shown to be beneficial in the parallel and serial configurations, both of which are common and can be practically implemented in the suspension of heavy vehicles.

Design and Characterization of a Non-Linear Variable Inerter in Vehicle Suspension System

“…in which 𝜌𝜌 is density of slider or flywheel, t is thickness of slider or flywheel, 𝑑𝑑 𝑖𝑖 is inner diameter of flywheel, a is distance between tangential center of flywheel and hollow slot, while e is position of slider with respect to rotational speed of flywheel. In this case, the position of sliders can be determined as Equation (7). As in structural diagram of variable inertia flywheel in Figure 1, the centrifugal force of flywheel when rotating is balanced by the spring force attached with slider in the flywheel.…”

“…The inerter is not only proven to be beneficial to a typical passenger car, but also on heavy vehicles such as truck and bus [6]. It is able to reduce the sprung mass acceleration and dynamic tire load of heavy vehicles with larger optimum inertance than that for passenger cars no matter in series or parallel arrangement layouts [7].…”

Dynamic Performance Analysis of Semiactive Vehicle ISD Suspension Based on the Power-Driven-Damper Strategy

“…Two types of vehicle ISD suspension layouts are designed and analyzed in the frequency domain, and it is shown that the vibration in the ofset frequency bands of the body resonance can be suppressed by vehicle ISD suspension [12]. Moreover, the performance of heavy vehicles with inerter is greatly improved; the research indicates that the vertical vibration of heavy vehicle can be efectively reduced by the vehicle ISD suspension, and it is more prominent in the low frequency band [13,14].…”