Synthesis of a magneto-rheological vehicle suspension system built on the variable structure control approach

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Synthesis of a magneto-rheological vehicle suspension system built on the variable structure control approach

Travares Stutz, Leonardo / Alves Rochinha, Fernando

The synthesis of a magneto-rheological vehicle suspension system built on the variable structure control approach is considered in the present work. The suspension is synthesized in order to improve the ride comfort obtained by a standard passive suspension. Although a nominal half-vehicle model with rigid body is considered in the synthesis of the suspension, phenomenological models for the MR dampers and for the seat-driver subsystem, along with the flexibility of the vehicle body, are considered in the performance assessment. For comparison purposes, active and magneto-rheological suspensions built on the optimal control approach and an active suspension built on the variable structure control approach are also considered. The numerical results show that the proposed suspension outperforms the passive suspension and presents a performance comparable to that of the active ones when the vehicle body may be assumed as rigid. Besides, when its flexibility is an important issue, a great performance drop may be observed, depending on the road quality, the damper characteristics and the adopted control strategy.