Search

Adding flow channel between main and annular chambers in same strut of roll-coupled Hydro-pneumatic Inter-connected Suspension (HIS) can effectively avoid the negative hydraulic pressure caused by the high damping factor of connected pipes under high velocity condition. This flow channel is usually closed in previous research in HIS area. In this study, the effect of orifice between main and annular chambers in same strut to the dynamic properties of HIS under the different road excitations is investigated by the established AMEsim half-car simulation model. The bounce and roll displacement/acceleration of the sprung mass are used to evaluate the dynamic properties of HIS. The results illustrate that (1) the added orifice can reduce the roll displacement/acceleration with slight influence on the vertical displacement/acceleration under the transient and road loop excitations; (2) the added orifice will not change the resonance frequency of the bounce and roll modes; (3) comparing with the traditional HIS design (without the added orifices), the maximum roll transmissibility can decrease 30.17% with 2.89% increase of the maximum vertical transmission for the added orifice with 2 mm2area. Overall, the results suggest that the proper size of the orifices will significantly increase the roll-stability properties with slight effect on the bounce mode under the road excitations.

To solve the vibration problem caused by the coupling of the powertrain and the mount system composed of the vehicle frame, the 12-degree-of-freedom mount system is used as the research object. Firstly, the natural frequency, decoupling rate and powertrain displacement response of the 6 and 12 degrees of freedom mount systems are solved. Secondly, the spectral radius of the coupling matrix of the 12-degree-of-freedom mount system is solved. The coupling matrix is shown to converge, and the vehicle frame centre-of-mass displacement response equation is solved by the coupling matrix without considering the road excitation. Finally, a multi-objective genetic algorithm is used to optimise the mount system with the maximum decoupling rate and the minimum vehicle centre-of-mass displacement response as the optimisation objectives. The numerical values show that the decoupling optimisation method better solves the coupling problem of the mount system and decreases the powertrain and vehicle frame displacement vibration response.

Magnetoactive elastomers (MAEs), one kind of typical novel magnetoactive driver applied in the soft robotic area, have become one of the research hotspots as they can provide biologically friendly driving methods with safe, preprogrammed, and easy-to-implement properties. In this study, novel MAEs embedding soft magnetic iron microparticles with radial chains, which can be molded in one piece, achieve 3D deformation, and co-work between multiple MAEs under single homogeneous stimuli, are proposed. Then, two kinds of novel magnetoactive drivers are established based on the proposed MAEs, which can achieve the synchronous pumping behavior of heart and the extension behavior of muscle under applied homogeneous magnetic fields. The experimental data show that (1) for the pumping behavior, the maximum instantaneous flow rate and total pumping volume can reach 200.1 and 52.3 mL/min, respectively, under 120 BPM applied harmonic magnetic field with 0–300 mT amplitude; (2) the muscle extension behavior can achieve a strain of 0.925 without a loading mass and carry a load of 40 times its own weight with a pronounced dynamic movement. It should be emphasized that the behavior of the proposed magnetoactive drivers can be excited by remote homogeneous magnetic fields, and it has great application potential in biomimetic or bioinspired soft driving systems.