Semi active suspension system performance under random road profile excitations

This paper presents an investigation on the performance of algorithms in semi active suspension system. A validated full car model was used for this purpose. The semi active suspension system is using the magnetorheological (MR) damper as its variable damping damper element. The Skyhook and Modified Skyhook algorithms are used to control the operation of the MR damper model in the semi active suspension systems of a full car model. The parameters of the algorithms were optimized to ensure the highest degree of ride comfort performance of the full car model based on a criteria. The model's jerk, vertical acceleration, vertical displacement, roll rate, roll angle, pitch rate and pitch angle are investigated in this paper in terms of root-mean-square (RMS) values and time domain results. It was found out the overall performance of skyhook-controlled system is slightly better than the modified skyhook-controlled system by 3.2 percent due to good algorithm performance in improving pitch motions of the vehicle. The modified skyhook algorithm is better in improving vehicle vertical motions and roll motions compared to the Skyhook system.