Development and experimental evaluation of translational semi-active dampers on a high mobility off-road vehicle

This paper describes the further development and experimental evaluation of two-state semi-active translational dampers on a 6×6 high mobility off-road vehicle. As only ride comfort was enhanced during previous work, the low-speed damping characteristics on the semi-active damper was increased in order to improve vehicle handling. The existing passive dampers, as normally fitted to the test vehicle, were modified to the semi-active configuration by adding a bypass assembly and a controllable valve. Experimental work included driving over various repeatable surfaces at different speeds and executing severe lane change manoeuvres. Results indicated that both handling and ride comfort were improved when selecting the semi-active configuration.