Performance Analysis of a Half-car Suspension System of a Road Vehicle with Magnetorheological Damper.

The suspension systems in automobile are required to provide optimum ride comfort and vehicle handling. As these two performance parameters are in contradiction with each other in automobiles fitted with regular passive suspension systems, various studies are being conducted to identify an alternative system that can optimise both the parameters. One such alternative is presented in the form of Magnetorheological (MR) damper, a most viable semiactive device. A MR damper comprises of MR fluid that consists of carbonyl iron powder and silicone oil added with additive. The characteristic of this damper has been established experimentally, which in turn is used to identify the parameters of spencer model for MR damper. Using spencer model of MR damper, at 5 different currents, viz.,0A, 0.25A, 0.5A, 0.75A, 1A, the half-car models of vehicle suspension system of a car and a multi axle truck are simulated for analysing the ride comfort and vehicle handling. The ride comfort and vehicle handling performance of each specific vehicle model with passive suspension system are compared with corresponding skyhook, ground hook and hybrid control semi-active suspension systems. The simulation and analysis are carried out using MATLAB/Simulink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]