Design and Evaluation of Hydro-Pneumatic Friction Damper Suspension System

Perceived comfort level and ride stability are the two most important factors in the evaluation of suspension system in a mobile vehicle. It is extremely difficult to simultaneously maintain a high standard of vehicle ride, handling and body control in the vehicle by using conventional passive suspension system. However, the use of active suspensions would result in better comforts than the passive ones. This paper presents the design and analysis of a pneumatic friction damper and hydro-pneumatic friction damper. A non-linear quarter car model is developed, which includes pneumatic actuation by pressure regulation. The performance of the proposed model was assessed in terms of level of vibration reduction. Simulations on a prototype model show that the proposed system has good performance and robustness. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1867-1.ch003