Vehicle suspension systems have been extensively explored in the past decades, contributing to ride comfort, handling and safety improvements. The new generation of powertrain and propulsion systems, as a new trend in modern vehicles, poses significant challenges to suspension system design. Consequently, novel suspension concepts are required, not only to improve the vehicle’s dynamic performance, but also to enhance the fuel economy by utilizing regeneration functions. However, the development of new-generation suspension systems necessitates advanced suspension components, such as springs and dampers. This Ph.D. thesis, on the development of hybrid electromagnetic dampers is an Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) collaborative project sponsored by Mechworks Systems Inc. The ultimate goal of this project is to conduct feasibility study of the development of electromagnetic dampers for automotive suspension system applications. With new improvements in power electronics and magnetic materials, electromagnetic dampers are forging the way as a new technology in vibration isolation systems such as vehicle suspension systems. The use of electromagnetic dampers in active vehicle suspension systems has drawn considerable attention in the recent years, attributed to the fact that active suspension systems have superior performance in terms of ride comfort and road-handling performances compared to their passive and semi-active counterparts in automotive applications. As a response to the expanding demand for superior vehicle suspension systems, this thesis describes the design and development of a new electromagnetic damper as a customized linear permanent magnet actuator to be used in active suspension systems. The proposed electromagnetic damper has energy harvesting capability. Unlike commercial passive/semi-active dampers that convert the vibration kinetic energy into heat, the dissipated energy in electromagnetic dampers can be regenerated as useful electrical energy. Electromagnetic dampers are used in active suspension systems, where the damping coefficient is controlled rapidly and reliably through electrical manipulations. Although demonstrating superb performance, active suspensions still have some issues that must be overcome. They have high energy consumption, weight, and cost, and are not fail-safe in case of a power break-down. Since the introduction of the electromagnetic dampers, the challenge was to address these drawbacks. Hybrid electromagnetic dampers, which are proposed in this Ph.D. thesis, are potential solutions to high weight, high cost, and fail-safety issues of an active suspension system. The hybrid electromagnetic damper utilizes the high performance of an active electromagnetic damper with the reliability of passive dampers in a single package, offering a fail-safe damper while decreasing weight and cost. Two hybrid damper designs are proposed in this thesis. The first one operates based on hydraulic damping as a source of passive damping, while the second design employs the eddy current damping effect to provide the passive damping part of the system. It is demonstrated that the introduction of the passive damping can reduce power consumption and weight in an active automotive suspension system. The ultimate objective of this thesis is to employ existing suspension system and damper design knowledge together with new ideas from electromagnetic theories to develop new electromagnetic dampers. At the same time, the development of eddy current dampers, as a potential source for passive damping element in the final hybrid design, is considered and thoroughly studied. For the very first time, the eddy current damping effect is introduced for the automotive suspension applications. The eddy current passive damper, as a stand-alone unit, is designed, modeled, fabricated and successfully tested. The feasibility of using passive eddy current dampers for automotive suspension applications is also studied. The structure of new passive eddy current dampers is straightforward, requiring no external power supply or any other electronic devices. Proposed novel eddy current dampers are oil-free and non-contact, offering high reliability and durability with their simplified design. To achieve the defined goals, analytical modeling, numerical simulations, and lab-based experiments are conducted. A number of experimental test-beds are prepared for various experimental analyses on the fabricated prototypes as well as off-the-shelf dampers. Various prototypes, such as eddy current and electromagnetic dampers, are manufactured, and tested in frequency/time domains for verification of the derived analytical and numerical models, and for proof of concept. In addition, fluid and heat transfer analyses are done during the process of the feasibility study to ensure the durability and practical viability of the proposed hybrid electromagnetic dampers. The presented study is only a small portion of the growing research in this area, and it is hoped that the results obtained here will lead to the realization of a safer and more superior automotive suspension system.

This thesis revisits the concept of ground vehicles active suspensions system from a power harvesting perspective. I introduce the two dimensions of freedom quarter vehicle model for calculations of vehicle dynamics as well as a road profile model based on PSD classifications based on International Organization for Standardization’s technical document, ISO 8608 “Mechanical vibration -- Road surface profiles -- Reporting of measured data”. I report the power harvesting potential of the conventional viscous fluid dampers for an extensive range of road profile roughness indices and vehicle speeds. I explain the problem of additional power harvesting from the regenerative electric damper operating in the "dead-zone" and introduce Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) DC-DC converter as a solution. I analyze the efficiency of this system by circuit level simulations in PSpice. / Graduate / 0540 / 0544 / farhang@uvic.ca

Ce travail concerne le développement de méthodes de commandes avancées pour les suspensions automobiles afin d'améliorer la tenue de route des véhicules et le confort des passagers, tout en respectant les contraintes technologiques liées aux actionneurs de suspension (passivité, non-linéarités, limite structurelle). Dans la 1ère partie, nous proposons deux schémas de commande par approche LPV polytopique (Linéaire à Paramètre Variant) et Stabilisation Forte (Strong Stabilization) avec optimisation par algorithme génétique pour résoudre les conflits confort/tenue de route et confort/débattement de suspension. Dans la 2ème partie, pour résoudre le problème complet de commande de suspensions semi-actives, nous développons d'abord une stratégie générique pour les systèmes LPV généraux soumis à la saturation des actionneurs et à des contraintes d'état. Le problème est étudié sous la forme de résolution d'inégalités linéaires matricielles (LMI) qui permettent de synthétiser un contrôleur LPV et un gain anti wind-up garantissant la stabilité et la performance du système en boucle fermée. Ensuite, cette stratégie est appliquée au cas de la commande des suspensions semi-actives. Les méthodes proposées sont validées par une évaluation basée sur un critère industriel et des simulations effectuées sur un modèle non-linéaire de quart de véhicule. / This work concerns the development of advanced control methods for automotive suspensions to improve road holding and passenger comfort, while satisfying the technological constraints related to the suspension actuators (passivity, nonlinearity, structural limit). In the first part, we propose two control schemes by polytopic LPV (Linear Parameter Varying) approach and by Strong Stabilization with genetic algorithm optimization to solve the comfort/handling and comfort/suspension travel conflits. In the second part, to solve the full semi-active suspension problem, we develop first a generic strategy for general LPV systems subject to actuator saturation and state constraints. The problem is studied in the form of resolution matrix of linear inequalities (LMI) that allows synthesizing an LPV controller and an anti-windup gain to ensure the stability and performance of the closed-loop system. Second, the theoretical result is applied to the case of semi-active suspension control. The proposed methods are validated by an evaluation based on an industrial standard and simulations on a nonlinear quarter vehicle model.

Mechanical Integration of a Versatile Air Suspension into a Powered Wheelchair Joel Steinkraus It is undeniable that the vibration environment created by prolonged exposure to wheelchair use can cause discomfort for the rider and put him/her at risk of developing more severe medical conditions. While more research must be done to accurately quantify what constitues a harmful vibration environment, improved vibraiton isolation is an essential step. In order to incorporate structurally sound and effetive air suspension systems into motorized wheelchairs, a support structure is necessary. An after market wheelchair suspension system was designed, modeled, built and tested. Approximately 18 inches wide x 14 inches deep and 11 inches tall, the 50 lb suspension system uses a linear guide system and air spring to support the rider. A dashpot was added to prevent the amplification of the air spring’s natural frequency, and a pneumatic system installed to store and regulate the air pressure in the air spring and allow for a longer ride time. Testing of the system validates the mechanical durability of the design with respect to joint separation, plate bending, and bearing breakaway resistance. The penumatic system also is found to support up to 14 ingress/egress cycles before reaching a minimum functional pressure level. This value was achieved using an initial charge pressure of 100 PSI. Further environmental and user testing should be conducted to see if a greater number of ingress/egress cycles is necessary. Further development of the suspension system will incorporate a partially active controller for the air spring in order to to reduce the suspension’s transmisibility. Part respecificaitons are proposed in order to reduce system size and weight.

Active suspension technologies are well known for improving ride comfort and handling of ground vehicles relative to passive suspensions. They are ideally suited for mitigating single-event road obstacles. The work presented in this thesis aims to develop a structured approach for finding the peak force and bandwidth requirements of actuators for active suspensions, to mitigate single-event road obstacles. The approach is kept general to allow for application to different vehicle models, ride conditions and performance objectives. The current state-of-art in active suspensions was first evaluated. Based on these findings, the objectives of the simulation models and approach was defined. A quarter-car model was developed in Matlab to simulate the behavior of active suspensions over unilateral boundary conditions due to different road obstacle profiles. The obstacle profiles were obtained from existing standards and literature and then processed to replicate the interaction of tires on road. A least-mean-squares (LMS) algorithm for adaptive filtering, with the help of look-ahead preview was used to determine the ideal control force profile to achieve the performance objective of the active suspension. A case study was conducted to determine the requirements of the actuator in terms of bandwidth and peak force for different single-event road obstacle profiles, vehicle speeds and look-ahead preview distances. The results of the study show that the vehicle velocity and type of road obstacle have a strong influence on the required peak force and bandwidth of the actuator, while look-ahead preview will be much more important for real time controller implementation. / Master of Science

Most commercial vehicles currently on the market are still equipped with a passive suspension system, while some luxury brands may already use an adaptive suspension. Active suspension systems on the other hand are rarely found, however, they offer great opportunities to close the gap of the well-known trade-off between ride comfort and handling. Besides that, they can also be used to mitigate single event disturbances, an objective of the USA army as announced in a solicitation which initiated and motivated this research. In addition to that, several studies were found stating the impact and danger of potholes and their impact on the vehicle and passenger. Reviewing the literature, several control strategies for controlling active suspension systems were found. However, most of these approaches used feedback control and did not try to mitigate single event disturbances. Since literature also suggested making use of look ahead preview, research at the Performance Engineering Research Lab at Virginia Tech was started in 2015 combining look ahead preview and an adaptive system to generate optimal force profiles. This introductory research succeeded and proved the used approach to be very promising. However, the used adaptive system was not designed to operate in real-time and did not show any correlation between different road profiles. Therefore, the main objective of this research project is to evaluate and analyze each of the adaptive systems by searching for correlations in their solutions. The results then should be used in order to design a control law which emulates the adaptive system and can be used in a real-time environment. First, an overall research methodology was derived. According to this a software application was developed which extracts ideal force profiles from single event disturbance signals in order to mitigate their impact to the vehicle. The application uses a quarter car model with a partially loaded active suspension system, a set of predefined road profiles, a road profile preprocessor, and an adaptive algorithm. The preprocessing includes geometric filtering using a Tandem-Cam Model and the adaptive processor used an iterative version of the Filtered-X Last-Mean-Square algorithm. During evaluation and analysis of several generated data sets, high correlations in the generated and adjusted adaptive systems were discovered. From these an empirical and theoretical universal filter model was derived, which was then used to design an open-loop control law named Optimal Force Control. The original control law and an adjusted version designed for a real-time environment were tested for all predefined road profiles over all considered vehicle velocities and prove to perform much better than the offline solution using the adaptive system. In summary, a control law named Optimal Force Control was designed which can be used and implemented in a vehicle to extract an analytical and ideal force profile given a road profile input. Implementing an active suspension system with tracking controller, this approach can be used in order to mitigate single event disturbance signals by reducing the vertical vehicle acceleration. / Master of Science

The aim of suspension systems in vehicles is to provide the best balance between ride and handling depending on the operating conditions of a vehicle. Active suspensions are far more effective over a variety of different road conditions compared to passive suspension systems. This is because of their ability to store and dissipate energy at different rates. Additionally, they can even provide energy of their own into the rest of the system. This makes active suspension systems an important topic of research in suspension systems. The biggest benefit of having an active suspension system is to be able to provide energy into the system that can minimize the response of the sprung mass. This is done using actuators. Actuator design in vehicle suspension system is an important research topic and a lot of work has been done in the field but little work has been done to estimate the peak control force and bandwidth required to minimize the response of the sprung mass. These two are very important requirements for actuator design in active suspensions. The aim of this study is estimate the peak control force and bandwidth to minimize the acceleration of the sprung mass of a vehicle while it is moving on a compliant surface. This makes the road surface a bi-lateral boundary and hence, the total system is a combination of the vehicle and the compliant road. Generalized vehicle and compliant road models are created so that parameters can be easily changed for different types of vehicles and different road conditions. The peak control force is estimated using adaptive filtering. A least mean squares (LMS) algorithm is used in the process. A case study with fixed parameters is used to show the results of the estimation process. The results show the effectiveness of an adaptive LMS algorithm for such an application. The peak control force and the bandwidth that are obtained from this process can then be used in actuator design. / Master of Science

All vehicles have changing payloads that affect their dynamic response. Compared to passenger vehicles, heavy machinery have larger and more greatly varying payload masses, higher centers of mass, and encounter larger disturbances. These factors lead to significant increases in the amount of vibration experienced by heavy machinery operators. This fact, when coupled with the large amount of exposure time that a typical heavy machinery operator incurs, leads to much greater vibration dosage values for the heavy machinery operator. In addition, the heavy machinery operator faces equal or greater opportunity for accident. The chance of accident, along with the increased vibration dosage, leads to an operating condition with significant safety risks, both short and long term. It has been shown that payloads affect both the stability and vibration isolation properties of a vehicle. Large payloads reduce vehicle stability while increasing the amount of vibration transmitted to the operator. A method to compensate for these loading affects would prove to be a useful technique to increase the safety of the vehicle, both in terms of accident avoidance and long term health effects of vibration. This thesis provides such payload compensation techniques. Improved vehicle dynamics were accomplished with the use of both active and semi-active suspension control. The active systems used are optimal control based, and provided the greatest improvements in vehicle performance. An optimal controller designed around a nominal payload, however, proved insufficient for operation over the entire payload range due to too large peak actuator forces at low payloads. A multiple model approach was used to remedy this problem. Semi-active systems based on a Linear Quadratic Regulator with output feedback and damping selection via static deflection were developed. The semi-active systems would require far less power than the active systems, with the need for knowledge of fewer systems states. It was shown that despite these lower demands, the semi-active systems closely approach the performance of the fully active systems.

<p>Active secondary suspension in trains has been studied for a number of years, showing promising improvements in ride comfort. However, due to relatively high implementation and maintenance costs, active technology is not being used in service operation to a large extent. The objective of this study is to develop an active lateral secondary suspension concept that offers good ride comfort improvements and enables centring of the carbody above the bogies when negotiating curves at unbalanced speed. Simultaneously, the active suspension concept should be a cost-effective solution for future series production. The thesis consists of an introductory part and three appended papers.</p><p>The introductory part describes the concept of active secondary suspension together with different actuator types and control methods. Further, the present simulation model and applied comfort evaluation methods are presented. The introductory part also comprises a summary of the appended papers, an evaluation of track forces and suggestions for further work.</p><p>Paper A presents the initial development of an active lateral secondary suspension concept based on sky-hook damping in order to improve vehicle dynamic performance, particularly on straight tracks. Furthermore, a Hold-Off-Device (HOD) function has been included in the suspension concept in order to centre the carbody above the bogies in curves and hence avoid bumpstop contact. Preparatory simulations as well as the subsequent on-track tests in the summer of 2007 showed that the active suspension provides improved passenger ride comfort and has significant potential to be a cost-effective solution for future implementation.</p><p>In Paper B, measurement results from on-track tests performed in 2008 are presented. The active secondary suspension concept was slightly modified compared to the one presented in the first paper. One modification was the implementation of a gyroscope in order to enable detection of transition curves and to switch off the dynamic damping in these sections. Ride comfort in the actively suspended carbody was significantly improved compared to that in the passively suspended car. The satisfactory results led to implementation of the active suspension system in long-term tests in service operation in the beginning of 2009.</p><p>In Paper C, a quarter-car model in MATLAB has been used to investigate a more advanced control algorithm: <em>H</em>_∞ instead of sky-hook. <em>H</em>_∞ control provides more flexibility in the design process due to the possibility to control several parameters. In particular, this is done by applying weight functions to selected signals in the system. When comparing the two control strategies through simulations, the results show that <em>H</em>_∞ control generates similar carbody accelerations at the same control force as sky-hook; however, the relative displacement displacement is somewhat lower.</p>

Durante as últimas décadas, têm sido realizados vários estudos sobre a aplicação de veículos suspensos como em teleféricos, bondinhos, linhas de transporte e/ou montagem em indústrias, e robôs para finalidades diversas. Como veículos suspensos possuem comportamento de pêndulo, estão suscetíveis as ações de forças externas que geram oscilações e balanços indesejados no veículo que podem comprometer sua função e segurança. Um levantamento bibliográfico mostrou a deficiência de estudos de sistemas que mantenham a estabilidade física de veículos suspensos. Usando conceitos de conservação de energia e quantidade de movimento foi concebida a ideia de desmembrar o corpo do veículo suspenso em duas partes, uma massa fixa e uma massa móvel de atuação e estabilização da estrutura do veículo; dessa forma fazendo uso apenas de componentes internos ao veículo, uma vez que em sistemas suspensos é grande a dificuldade de aplicação de forças externas para correção de posicionamento. Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido um sistema ativo de autoestabilização para veículos suspensos capaz de amenizar os efeitos de forças externas que possam comprometer a atividade desempenhada pelo veículo. Para a autoestabilização foi montado um sistema de controle em malha fechada com sensor de detecção de inclinação (posição) e atuador com motor de corrente contínua para deslocar uma massa móvel dentro do robô suspenso, acionados por um microcontrolador embarcado. A eficiência do sistema foi comprovada com a montagem de um protótipo, onde uma programação baseada em controle proporcional e derivativo foi suficiente para garantir uma eficiente e rápida estabilização no robô quando sujeito a forças externas como atuação de ventos, por exemplo. / During the last decades, many researches and studies have been done about suspended vehicles such as chair lifts, cable cars, carrying and assemblies of parts in the industry, etc. Suspended vehicles behave like a pendulum and they are susceptible to the action of external forces which cause oscillations and unwanted swing at the vehicle that may affect function and security of the vehicle. For several applications it is important to keep the physical stability of suspended vehicles (or part of them), such as in autonomous robots for inspection. In suspended systems it is very difficult to apply external forces to correct its position due the swing; so, it is proposed a new stabilizing system for suspended vehicles based on the conservation of energy and quantity of motion. Using only internal components of the suspended vehicle, the mass of the system was separated in two parts: an active mobile part that stabilizes a fixed part such as the structure of the vehicle. In this work, it is described an active system for swing control on suspended vehicles, able to soften the effects of external forces that can dangerously damage the performance of the vehicle. An autonomous off-board microcontroller with feed-back program was assembled to stabilize the structure of the vehicle by using an inclination sensor attached to it. A DC motor is used to move the mobile part of the suspended vehicle to correct the equilibrium of the vehicles structure. The microcontroller program based on proportional-derivative control system was implemented and tests were performed on a prototype vehicle. A good performance of the system was obtained with an efficient and fast stabilization of the prototype structure under the action of external forces, such as wind forces.