Στα πλαίσια της διπλωματικής εργασίας αναπτύχθηκε μια εφαρμογή, η οποία μπορεί να ελέγχει τη φθορά των αναρτήσεων του αυτοκινήτου και να ειδοποιεί τον οδηγό όταν αυτές έχουν φθαρεί. Θα εξομοιώσουμε τα σήματα που στέλνουν τέσσερις αισθητήρες πιεζοκρυστάλλων, προσαρμοσμένοι στις αναρτήσεις του αυτοκινήτου, τα οποία μετά από κατάλληλη προεπεξεργασία (κεντροθέτηση και λεύκανση) και διαχωρισμό με τη μέθοδο της ανάλυσης σε ανεξάρτητες συνιστώσες (ICA), θα μας δώσουν τις πληροφορίες που χρειαζόμαστε για την κατάσταση των αναρτήσεων. Η εφαρμογή αναπτύχθηκε στο περιβάλλον μVision της Keil, σε γλώσσα προγραμματισμού C, για το μικροελεγκτή STM32F103RB της ST Microelectronics. / In the context of this thesis an application was developed, that is capable of checking the wear of vehicle suspensions and informing the driver of their status. We simulated the signals that four specifically built sensors, fit into the suspension system sent, which after proper preprocessing (centering and whitening) and separation using Independent Component Analysis (ICA), will give us the information we need about the state of the suspensions. This application was developed in Keil’s μVision, in C programming language, for the STM32F103RB microcontroller by ST Microelectronics.

Suspension system is one of the most important subsystems in any automobile.An ideal system serves the occupant with comfort, minimal road disturbance, and thedriver with steer control and maneuverability.In the process of developing an ideal system, all the existing suspension systemsare reviewed by Pro-con analysis method, and McPherson suspension system is drawnout as most suitable system for Uniti car, as worked out from Pugh’s decision matrix.House of Quality is built to list out and prioritize technical specifications, userrequirements/ expectations for L7e car’s suspension. Quality Function Deploymentalso helped us to evaluate competitor strengths and weaknesses. The results obtainedfrom QFD is used as database to modify the existing predesigned McPhersonsuspension template that is available in ADAMS/Car 2015.1.0. Once the system wasmodified in the way it could fit the dimensions of Uniti car, it is tested and simulatedon test rig, whose results were out in the form of graphical plots between variousimportant suspension parameters.Parallel wheel travel, Opposite wheel travel, and Brake pull analysis are thetests conducted during simulation, whose results reveals that the modified suspensionsystem works efficiently for maximum working load and is stable on road to maneuvers.

This study aims to evaluate the use of mathematical optimisation algorithms for the optimisation of a vehicle’s spring and damper characteristics, with respect to ride comfort and handling. Traditionally the design of a vehicle’s suspension spring and damper characteristics are determined by a few simple planar model calculations, followed by extensive trial-and-error simulation or track testing. With the current advanced multi-body dynamics computer software packages available to the design engineer, the integration of traditional mathematical optimisation techniques with these packages, can lead to much faster product development. This, in turn results in a reduction of development costs. A sports utility vehicle is modelled by means of a general-purpose computer programme for the dynamic analysis of a multi-body mechanical system. This model is validated against measurements from road tests. The mathematical model is coupled to two gradient-based mathematical optimisation algorithms. The performance of the recently proposed Dynamic-Q optimisation algorithm, is compared with that of the industry-standard gradient based Sequential Quadratic Programming method. The use of different finite difference approximations for the gradient vector evaluation is also investigated. The results of this study indicate that gradient-based mathematical optimisation methods may indeed be successfully integrated with a multi-body dynamics analysis computer program for the optimisation of a vehicle’s suspension system. The results in a significant improvement in the ride comfort as well as handling of the vehicle. / Dissertation (MEng (Mechanical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

The efficient optimisation of vehicle suspension systems is of increasing interest for vehicle manufacturers. The main aim of this thesis is to develop a methodology for efficiently optimising an off-road vehicle’s suspension for both ride comfort and handling, using gradient based optimisation. Good ride comfort of a vehicle traditionally requires a soft suspension setup, while good handling requires a hard suspension setup. The suspension system being optimised is a semi-active suspension system that has the ability to switch between a ride comfort and a handling setting. This optimisation is performed using the gradient-based optimisation algorithm Dynamic-Q. In order to perform the optimisation, the vehicle had to be accurately modelled in a multi-body dynamics package. This model, although very accurate, exhibited a high degree of non-linearity, resulting in a computationally expensive model that exhibited severe numerical noise. In order to perform handling optimisation, a novel closed loop driver model was developed that made use of the Magic Formula to describe the gain parameter for the single point driver model’s steering gain. This non-linear gain allowed the successful implementation of a single point preview driver model for the closed loop double lane change manoeuvre, close to the vehicle’s handling limit. Due to the high levels of numerical noise present in the simulation model’s objective and constraint functions, the use of central finite differencing for the determination of gradient information was investigated, and found to improve the optimisation convergence history. The full simulation model, however, had to be used for the determination of this gradient information, making the optimisation process prohibitively expensive, when many design variables are considered. The use of carefully chosen simplified two-dimensional non-linear models were investigated for the determination of this gradient information. It was found that this substantially reduced the total number of expensive full simulation evaluations required, thereby speeding up the optimisation time. It was, however, found that as more design variables were considered, some variables exhibited a lower level of sensitivity than the other design variables resulting in the optimisation algorithm terminating at sub-optimal points in the design space. A novel automatic scaling procedure is proposed for scaling the design variables when Dynamic-Q is used. This scaling methodology attempts to make the n-dimensional design space more spherical in nature, ensuring the better performance of Dynamic-Q, which makes spherical approximations of the optimisation problem at each iteration step. The results of this study indicate that gradient-based mathematical optimisation methods may indeed be successfully integrated with a multibody dynamics analysis computer program for the optimisation of a vehicle’s suspension system. Methods for avoiding the negative effects of numerical noise in the optimisation process have been proposed and successfully implemented, resulting in an improved methodology for gradient-based optimisation of vehicle suspension systems. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

Bc. Radoslav Fišer Suspension kinematics points measurement with use of measurement device Tritop MT, IAE, 2008, sites 58, pictures 45 We compare methods of obtaining input data for sotwares simulating kinematic and dynamic characretistics of vehicle suspension. Digitizing system working with three dimensional coordinates Tritop and Atos is used for measurement. With repeated measuring we investigate accuracy, time hefftines and suitability of methods for car suspension mesurement. Special targest were developed to use with Tritop device measurement.

Vibration control is a large branch in control research, because all moving systems may induce desired or undesired vibration. Due to the limitation of passive system's adaptability and changing excitation input, vibration control brings the solution to change system dynamic with desired behavior to fulfill control targets. According to preference, vibration control can be separated into two categories: vibration reduction and vibration amplification. Lots of research papers only examine one aspect in vibration control. The thesis investigates the control development for both control targets with two different control applications: vehicle suspension and ocean wave energy converter. It develops control methods for both systems with simplified modeling setup, then followed by the application of a novel mechanical motion rectifier (MMR) gearbox that uses mechanical one-way clutches in both systems. The flow is from the control for common system to the control design for a specifically designed system. In the thesis, active (model predictive control: MPC), semi-active (Skyhook, skyhook-power driven damper: SH-PDD, hybrid model predictive control: HMPC), and passive control (Latching Control) methods are developed for different applications or control performance comparison on single system. The thesis also studies about new type of system with switching mechanism, in which other papers do not talk too much and possible control research direction to deal with such complicated system in vibration control. The state-space modeling for both systems are provided in the thesis with detailed model of the MMR gearbox. From the simulation, it can be shown that in the vehicle suspension application, the controlled MMR gearbox can be effective in improving vehicle ride comfort by 29.2% compared to that of the traditional hydraulic suspension. In the ocean wave energy converter, the controlled MMR WEC with simple latching control can improve the power generation by 57% compared to the passive MMR WEC. Besides, the passive MMR WEC also shows its advantage on the passive direct drive WEC in power generation improvement. From the control development flow for the MMR system, the limitation of the MMR gearbox is also identified, which introduces the future work in developing active-MMR gearbox by using an electromagnetic clutch. Some possible control development directions on the active-MMR is also mentioned at the end of the thesis to provide reference for future works. / Master of Science / Vibration happens in our daily life in almost all cases. It is a regular or irregular back and forth motion of particles. For example, when we start a vehicle, the engine will do circular motion to drive the wheel, which causes vibration and we feel wave pulses on our body when we sit in the car. However, this kind of vibration is undesirable, since it makes us uncomfortable. The car manufacture designs cushion seats to absorb vibration. This is a way to use hardware to control vibration. However, this is not enough. When vehicle goes through bumps, we do have suspension to absorb vibration transferred from road to our body. The car still experiences a big shock that makes us feel dizzy. On the opposite direction, in some cases when vibration becomes the motion source for energy harvesting, we would like to enhance it. Hardware can be helpful, since by tuning some parameters of an energy harvesting device, it can match with the vibration source to maximize vibration. However, it is still not enough due to low adaptability of a fixed parameter system. To overcome the limitation of hardware, researches begin to think about the way to control vibration, which is the method to change system behavior by using real-time adjustable hardware. By introducing vibration control, the theory behind that started to be investigated. This thesis investigates the vibration control theory application in both cases: vibration reduction and vibration enhancement, which are mentioned above due to opposite application preferences. There are two major applications of vibration control: vehicle suspension control and ocean wave energy converter (WEC) control. The thesis starts from the control development for both fields with general modeling criteria, then followed by control development with specific hardware design-mechanical motion rectifier (MMR) gearbox-applied on both systems. The MMR gearbox is the researcher designed hardware that targets on vibration adjustment with hardware capability, which is similar as the cushion seats mentioned at the beginning of the abstract. However, the MMR cannot have capability to furtherly optimize system vibration, which introduces the necessity of control development based on the existing hardware. In the suspension control application, the control strategy introduced successfully improve the vehicle ride comfort by 29.2%, which means the vehicle body acceleration has been reduced furtherly to let passenger feel less vibration. In the WEC application, the power absorbed from wave has been improved by 57% by applying suitable control strategy. The performance of improvement on vibration control has proved the effect on further vibration optimization beyond hardware limitation.

A computer simulation is used to examine the effects that various control methods have on the performance of semiactive dampers in controlling the dynamics of a single suspension (quarter car) model. The level of dynamic control of this model has a direct bearing on the ride comfort and vehicle handling, when the single suspension is interpreted as a partial model of a vehicle. The dynamic results obtained when using two alternative semiactive control methods are compared to the results obtained when using the more conventional control methods of passive damping, Skyhook control, and Hybrid control. The conventional control methods results confirm that the semiactive damper possesses a number of benefits when compared to passive damping. In addition, the alternative control methods, which are Displacement Skyhook and Displacement Hybrid, do not show benefits that are superior to passive damping or the conventional semiactive control methods. In support of the conclusions of this report, sufficient detail of the mathematical and numerical model is provided in the event that one should wish to recreate the results presented here. Next, the simulation results of each of the five control methods are presented individually. Several of the responses used in the results chapters are the transmissibility plots for the sprung and unsprung body displacement, the frequency spectrum of acceleration, and the frequency spectrum of the rattle space. In addition, the system response to a step input is calculated and, lastly, time traces are calculated, one at a time, for system excitations at the sprung and unsprung mass natural frequencies. The key dynamic measures studied are settling times, displacements, accelerations, and jerks. The responses just listed are then used in a comparison study between each of the presented control methods. / Master of Science

The objective of the present work is to study the vehicle suspension as a vibro-acoustic system of high complexity, consisting of many sub-systems with fundamentally different acoustical properties. In a parallel numerical and experimental modelling effort, important contributions to the understanding of its behaviour have been achieved. These findings are based on a balance between component investigations and global modelling of the complete system; they have been formulated for the transmission of both tyre-road excitation and friction-induced vibrations in the brake system. Initially an experimental study was conducted on a full vehicle test rig studying the broadband interior brake noise problem of, here named, roughness noise. The purpose of the study was twofold: first, to determine if the transmission from the source to the interior of the vehicle was structure-borne; second, to study the complexity of the suspension as a vibro-acoustic system. Parameters a_ecting the vibro-acoustic source were varied to gain understanding of the source mechanisms. This experimental study laid the foundation of the first part of this thesis (paper A) and provided the directions for the second part, the development of a mathematical modelling approach (paper B and C). In these two papers, methods for analysing the complex vibro-acoustic transfer of structure-borne sound in a vehicle suspension system were developed. The last part was then focussed on the wheel rim influence on the vibro-acoustic behaviour (paper D) of the suspension system. As a whole, the work clearly demonstrates that it is possible to conduct component studies of subsystems in the vehicle suspension system; and from these component studies it is possible draw conclusions that very well may avoid severe degradations in the interior noise of future vehicle generations. / <p>QC 20130503</p>

Conventional vehicle suspensions consist of a spring and a damper, while mass is rarely used. A mass, if properly used, can also create a damping-like effect. However, a mass has only one terminal which makes it difficult to be incorporated into a suspension. In order to use a mass to achieve the damping-like effect, a two-terminal mass (TTM) has to be designed. However, most of the reported TTMs are of fixed moment of inertia (TTM-CMI), which limits the further improvement of the suspension performance and responsiveness to changes in environment and driving conditions. In this study, a TTM-based vibration absorber with variable moment of inertia (TTM-VMI) is proposed. The main component of the proposed TTM absorber contains a hydraulic-driven flywheel with sliders. The moment of inertia changes with the positions of the sliders in response to the driving conditions. The performance of the proposed TTM-VMI absorber has been analyzed via dynamics modeling and simulation and further examined by experiments. The analysis results indicate that the TTM-VMI absorber outperforms the TTM-CMI design in terms of body displacement; and ride comfort, tire grip and suspension deflection for zero and impulse inputs with comparable performance for sinusoidal input.

Conventional vehicle suspensions consist of a spring and a damper, while mass is rarely used. A mass, if properly used, can also create a damping-like effect. However, a mass has only one terminal which makes it difficult to be incorporated into a suspension. In order to use a mass to achieve the damping-like effect, a two-terminal mass (TTM) has to be designed. However, most of the reported TTMs are of fixed moment of inertia (TTM-CMI), which limits the further improvement of the suspension performance and responsiveness to changes in environment and driving conditions. In this study, a TTM-based vibration absorber with variable moment of inertia (TTM-VMI) is proposed. The main component of the proposed TTM absorber contains a hydraulic-driven flywheel with sliders. The moment of inertia changes with the positions of the sliders in response to the driving conditions. The performance of the proposed TTM-VMI absorber has been analyzed via dynamics modeling and simulation and further examined by experiments. The analysis results indicate that the TTM-VMI absorber outperforms the TTM-CMI design in terms of body displacement; and ride comfort, tire grip and suspension deflection for zero and impulse inputs with comparable performance for sinusoidal input.